Analysis of primary damage in silicon carbide under fusion and fission neutron spectra

Irradiation parameters on primary damage states of SiC are evaluated and compared for the first wall of ITER under deuterium–deuterium (DD) and deuterium–tritium (DT) operation, the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) and high flux isotope reactor (HFIR). With the same neutron fluence, the studied fusion spectra produce more damage and much higher gas production than the fission spectra. Due to comparable gas production and similar weighted primary recoil spectra, HFIR is considered suitable to simulate the neutron irradiation in an HTGR. In contrast to the significant differences between the weighted primary recoil spectra of the fission and the fusion spectra, the weighted secondary recoil spectra of HFIR and HTGR match those of DD and DT, indicating that displacement cascades by the fission and the fusion irradiation are similar when the damage distribution among damaged regions by secondary recoils is taken into account.