Irradiation and Post-Irradiation Facilities in a Radiation Damage Research

The CISE 3.5 MV tandem Van de Graaff accelerator is routinely used for technological and industrial applications; the most important of these are the following: - the PIXE analytical method for which a large scale automation of target and beam handling and of data acquisition and reduction for elemental analysis has been achieved; - the Rutherford scattering for the chemical analysis and the evaluation of thermal diffusion in thin films; - the simulation of neutron radiation damage by the use of proton bombardment. The present communication deals with this last application. An outline of research and facilities for the sample irradiation and for the study of radiation damage effects is given. AISI 304 and AISI 316 solution annealed stainless steels and A 508 reactor vessel steel were irradiated between 200 °C up to 1 dpa and the first results of these irradiations are shown.