Silver-indium-cadmium decoupler and liner

Harada, Masahide   ; Saito, Shigeru   ; Teshigawara, Makoto   ; Kawai, Masayoshi*; Kikuchi, Kenji; Watanabe, Noboru; Ikeda, Yujiro

As a decoupler material for intense neutron sources, we proposed a new composite material based on the (n,) reaction, silver-indium-cadmium alloy (AIC), which had lettle helium gas production rate and higher decoupling energy (1eV). We compared an AIC decoupler with Cd and BC decouplers from various viewpoints and finally selected AIC as decoupler and liner materials. In the current design, we adopted AIC of 2.5mm thick with a composition of Ag-35wt%Cd and 0.5mm thick with Ag-15wt%In. A decoupler and a liner can be bonded to structural material (Al-alloy) by HIP for water cooling through Al-alloy. To find the optimal HIP condition, small pieces of Ag-Cd and Ag-In (202mm) were enclosed in Al-alloy capsules (22mm, 3mm thick bottom plate and 1mm thick cap) of several Al-alloys. The optimal condition was found to be 500C with a holding time of 60 minutes under a fixed pressure of 100MPa. Large pieces (Ag-Cd: 2002002.5mm, Ag-In: 2002000.5mm, A5083 and A6061: 21021021mm) were also tested aiming at more realistic size conditions.