Tokamak Fusion Generators for Nuclear Radiation Effects Testing

The potential utilization of near-term tokamak test reactors for nuclear radiation damage evaluation and hardening programs is examined. Physical layouts of the irradiation modules and methods of neutron spectrum tailoring are described. Tokamak fusion generators provide much larger test volume and can give more faithful spectral simulations of thermonuclear threat environments than do accelerator-driven point neutron sources or pulsed fast-fission reactors. However, the tokamak is basically a long-pulse source producing relatively low neutron dose rates (~105 rads/s) that limit its application to damage programs with devices and subsystems that are sensitive to integrated radiation dose rather than dose rate.