Importance diagrams—a novel presentation of the response of a material to neutron irradiation

Activation of fusion materials following neutron irradiation is of great technological importance, especially in the study of safety and environmental impacts. Currently, activation calculations are performed for a particular neutron spectrum, appropriate to a region in a particular fusion device, which makes it difficult to extract generic information. The present work gives details of a method to present the dominant nuclides for the radiological responses of an irradiated material in a fashion that is independent of the neutron spectrum and almost independent of the flux. The importance diagrams show regions in the decay time versus neutron energy space where a nuclide contributes >50% of the response. The importance diagrams for pure iron and SS316 are described, and it is noted that the shapes of the various regions vary very little with the total neutron flux. Variation of the diagrams with irradiation time occurs at short decay times in a systematic fashion. The use of the diagrams in a realistic spectrum relies on an expansion, which while not generally true, does hold approximately for many of the nuclides of interest. The diagrams are therefore a valuable summary of the universal, device-independent, response of the materials, and when combined with pathway information give a comprehensive description of activation for that material.