Post-irradiation examination on LiSoR 3 experiment

Liquid solid reaction (LiSoR) facility is a lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) loop which operates during irradiation with 72 MeV protons. In the LiSoR 3 experiment the beam current was set to 15 μA. Due to an erroneous signal of a leak detector in the beam line the experiment had to be stopped ahead of schedule after 264 h of irradiation. Nevertheless, the post-irradiation examinations (PIE) performed on the tensile specimen and the test tube by SIMS and SEM/EDX showed interesting results. No corrosion attack of LBE to the steel occurred, and no micro crack formed. An oxide layer consisting of a duplex structure was formed on the steel surfaces. The thickness of this layer is dependent on the position to the beam centre. The thickest layers were found directly in the irradiated zones both on the tube and on the specimen. Although the irradiation is still low, 0.2 dpa, the results are optimistic to MEGAPIE (1 megawatt pilot experiment) target.