Tritium-titanium target degradation due to deuterium irradiation for DT neutron production

Abstract

In the present article, we have investigated tritium removal from tritium-titanium targets during fusion neutron production and the impact of tritium degradation on neutron production. The removal of tritium from the target is predicted for deuterium ion irradiation with the SDTrimSp code. We adopt the binary collision approximation method to simulate the recoils and projectile trajectories and concentration of constituents in the target. We have modelled four phenomena in our simulations; ion exchange, sputtering, outgassing of tritium, and thermal diffusion of hydrogen isotopes in the target caused by deuterium irradiation. Insignificant contributors such as burn-up of tritium in neutron production and loss of tritium due to radioactive decay are not included in our model. This tritium removal results in the nonuniform distribution of tritium in the target. A Python-based script is developed to investigate the effects of tritium removal on neutron production with these pristine and irradiated targets. This script uses the layered composition of the constituents’ atoms, DT reaction cross-section, and stopping power of deuterium ions in the target. The script is validated with the NeuSdesc code for the pristine target. Using the layered composition of tritium atoms in the target obtained from the SDTrimSp simulations, the script predicts the degradation in neutron production for different irradiation scenarios.

Keywords

• DT neutrons
• deuterium irradiation
• tritium removal
• neutron yield calculations