Characterization Of Aluminum-Based Coatings After Short Term Exposure During Irradiation Campaign In The Lvr-15 Fission Reactor

Protective aluminum-based coatings represent a promising anti-permeation and anti-corrosion barrier for breeding blanket systems developed for European DEMO fusion reactor. Following the prior in-depth characterizations, selected coating candidates were subjected to a combined test consisting of contact with liquid Pb16Li, its repeated in-situ solidification and re-melting, tritium permeation during gamma and neutron irradiation in the LVR-15 fission reactor. During the sample exposure in the reactor, the temperature of Pb-16Li was between 300 and 425 degrees C. The irradiation damage averaged over the sample volume estimated by FISPACT code was limited to 0.037 dpa. This article presents post-irradiation characterization of cylindrical Eurofer97 samples coated by electro-chemical X-metal deposition from ionic liquid (ECX) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) techniques. The coating damage relative to a reference uncoated sample is discussed.