14 MeV neutron irradiation effects on cryostability of a composite superconductor for a fusion reactor

The neutron irradiation effects on cryostability of composite superconductors for fusion reactors are studied based on Maddock's condition. In particular, to estimate the effects of 14 MeV neutrons we assumed that the irradiation-induced degradation of critical temperature, critical current density and conductivity of stabilizer are determined by the damage energy depending on the neutron energy spectrum. The cryostability is found to decrease sensitively with increasing the fraction α of fusion neutrons with energy of 10 ～ 14 MeV to the total neutrons, ie, the Cu/superconductor ratio R_ns, to stabilize the conductor, must be increased remarkably with increasing α as well as the total dose of the neutron fluence. For the small R_ns (～4) the stabilized overall current density decreases by several ten percents even at the fluence when T_c and J_c change by only a few percent. This effect is dominated by the severe increase of ρ.