Production of long-lived radionuclides ¹⁰Be, ¹⁴C, ⁵³Mn, ⁵⁵Fe, ⁵⁹Ni and ^202gPb in a fusion environment

In a fusion reactor and also in future advanced reactor types, long-lived activation products may lead to significant long-term waste disposals and radiation damage. Many of these production cross sections are not well-known, making it difficult to calculate concentration limits. Some prominent long-lived activation products comprise ¹⁰Be, ¹⁴C, and ²⁶Al; in the medium-mass range the radionuclides ⁵³Mn, ^55,60Fe, ^59,63Ni; and for heavier isotopes ^202mPb, ^210mBi. Since a few years the technique of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has been applied at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) facility for the detection of long-lived radionuclides for such studies. In this respect, samples were irradiated with quasi-monoenergetic neutrons at TU Dresden's 14-MeV neutron generator and the van de Graaff accelerator at IRMM. After the activations the samples were prepared for isotope ratio measurements via AMS. Production of long-lived ⁵³Mn and ⁵⁹Ni was measured via AMS utilizing the 14-MV tandem of the Maier-Leibnitz- laboratory, TU Munich. Radionuclides ¹⁰Be, ¹⁴C, ²⁶Al, ⁵⁵Fe, ^210mBi, and ^202gPb are measured at the VERA facility.