The RaDIATE high-energy proton materials irradiation experiment at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer facility

The RaDIATE collaboration (Radiation Damage In Accelerator Target Environments) was founded in 2012 to bring together the high-energy accelerator target and nuclear materials communities to address the challenging issue of radiation damage effects in beam-intercepting materials. Success of current and future high intensity accelerator target facilities requires a fundamental understanding of these effects including measurement of materials property data. Toward this goal, the RaDIATE collaboration organized and carried out a materials irradiation run at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer facility (BLIP). The experiment utilized a 181 MeV proton beam to irradiate several capsules, each containing many candidate material samples for various accelerator components. Materials included various grades/alloys of beryllium, graphite, silicon, iridium, titanium, TZM, CuCrZr, and aluminum. Attainable peak damage from an 8-week irradiation run ranges from 0.03 DPA (Be) to 7 DPA (Ir). Helium production is expected to range from 5 appm/DPA (Ir) to 3,000 appm/DPA (Be). The motivation, experimental parameters, as well as the post-irradiation examination plans of this experiment are described.