Fusion energy is regarded as a hope for mitigating climate change, but it still has to overcome challenges before being deployable in power plants. One being that high energy neutrons produced in the fusion reactions deteriorate the properties of many reactor components, including the radiation sensitive fusion magnets. This issue is amplified in compact high-field fusion devices that operate at high power densities.
Previously reported radiation tolerances for superconductors were mostly based on room temperature irradiations. Fusion magnets however will be radiation damaged while being operated at cryogenic temperatures.
We have implemented a cold ion irradiation facility that satisfies the need to investigate the effects of radiation induced defects on superconductors at fusion relevant thermal conditions.
In this research we systematically studied the influence of irradiation temperature in the range from 20 K to 300 K on the degradation of critical current and transition temperature in REBCO tapes. After characterization, the cold irradiated tapes were annealed and their properties compared to tapes irradiated at these very annealing temperatures.
We present our obtained results and discuss their implications for optimizing future irradiation experiments.