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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Christmas Light
’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
No electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged by the chimney with care
With the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
D. S. Kopecki, K. M. Ralls, E. Linn Draper, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 29 | Number 1 | April 1976 | Pages 98-107
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A16294
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Composition changes that occur during neutron bombardment have been calculated for the first wall of a hypothetical fusion reactor. The first wall materials studied are pure niobium, zirconium, molybdenum, and vanadium, and some of their binary alloys. Two integrated neutron flux intensities, 3.8 × 1014 n/(cm2 sec) and 3.8 × 1015 n/(cm2 sec) up to a fluence of 3.6 × 1023 n/cm2, have been used in the calculations of the first three materials. In addition, the composition as a function of fluence (maximum fluence =4.0 × 1023 n/cm2) has been calculated for a vanadium wall. Graphs for each material have been plotted to show the variation of composition as a function of time and/or fluence. Rates of production of hydrogen and helium have been calculated for all four materials; comparisons for niobium and vanadium walls with literature values show agreement that it is not poor. Furthermore, mixture diagrams have been constructed for two binary alloy systems, niobium-zirconium and niobium-vanadium, to relate composition at constant irradiation time to the initial composition.