Description
DCF is the state-of-the-art research base of the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute. This is part of the Henry Royce Institute and two other strategically important national programmes designed to support access by researchers from academia and industry to high-end experimental equipment.
• The National Nuclear User Facility project is a Government investment in the UK’s nuclear future. It provides state-of-the-art experimental facilities for research and development in nuclear science and technology.
• The EPSRC UK National Ion Beam Centre, is a partnership between the universities of Surrey, Huddersfield and Manchester. This provides the academic research community with a single point of access to three complementary ion beam facilities: ion beam modification, radiation damage and ion beam analysis.
DCF provides the experimental infrastructure and expertise to carry out fundamental research in the area of radiation science. DCF is co-located with the largest concentration of nuclear industry facilities in the UK, facilitating academic access to the active research facilities within National Nuclear Laboratory Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site. It incorporates large-scale irradiation equipment, complemented by instruments supporting a wide range of in-situ and ex-situ analytical techniques. The Facility has a dedicated on-site team of research active expert experimentalists who are there to help the user community to design, develop and deliver experiments to a high standard and to interpret data and outcomes.
Ion beam accelerators
DCF has two accelerators 5MV tandem Pelletron and a 2.5MV Pelletron.
They are configured to provide for a range of ion irradiation and ion beam analysis capabilities across 8 beam lines.
Ion beam irradiation allows rapid achievement of materials damage levels accumulated during many years of in-reactor exposure. This provides data on the effects of radiation under very specific conditions of temperature, radiation dose rate and radiation dose.
The technique also allows for tightly controlled in-situ interrogation of materials properties during irradiation. This provides data to develop and validate predictive radiation effects models. Dual ion beam capability allows for simultaneous gas implantation with radiation damage creation.
The two accelerators are:
• An NEC model 15SDH-4 delivering Mz+ ions with energy 5(z+1) MeV, e.g. 1H+ ions up to 10 MeV, 4He2+ ions up to 15 MeV and heavy ions up to a possible maximum of 35 MeV. Six beam lines are available for selection from the 5MV tandem, including a high dose ‘hot cell’ and an Ion Beam Analysis end station. One ion source is for high current 1H+ and 4He2+ beams, with a second source for lower currents of heavy ions.
• An NEC Model 7.5SH-2, capable of accelerating ions to energies up to 2.5 MeV. Equipped with an RF plasma source capable of producing 1H+, 4He2+ ions or heavier gas ions. Two beam lines, one of which can be configured to coincide a beam line from the 5MV tandem accelerator to provide two dual beam irradiation.
Gamma irradiator(s)
The FTS Model 812 cobalt-60 high dose rate gamma irradiator is designed and operated to support a wide range of research applications. It aims to develop understanding of the mechanistic effects of gamma radiation on exposed materials. The instrument is capable of delivering dose rates from around 25 kGy/hr to less than 100 Gy/hr.
The Precision X-ray Multi-Rad 350 irradiator is capable of dose rates up to 140 Gy/min (unfiltered beam), for experiments where lower energy photons are more applicable.
Material modification, characterisation and analytical equipment
Our laboratories can produce and analyse a wide range of materials. From spark plasma sintering innovative materials, such as nuclear ceramics, to identifying molecules with Raman spectroscopy, or to determine and map the texture and crystal structure of metals and composites (with our high end XRD and SEM). This capability is complemented by a growing range of in-situ techniques to be used in conjunction with ion beam irradiations.
