Development status of low activation ternary Au-In-Cd alloy decoupler for a MW class spallation neutron source; 1st production of Au-In-Cd alloy

Oi, Motoki ; Teshigawara, Makoto   ; Wakui, Takashi  ; Nishi, Tsuyoshi; Harada, Masahide   ; Maekawa, Fujio  ; Futakawa, Masatoshi  

The Japan Spallation Neutron Source (JSNS) at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is developed as a 1 MW spallation neutron source. The Ag-In-Cd (AIC) alloy was adopted as a decoupler material for two decoupled moderators. A high decoupling energy at 1 eV was for the first time achieved in MW class spallation neutron source due to the adoption of the AIC alloy. Although the AIC decoupler is superior in the neutronic performance, it has a demerit in high residual radioactivity due to production of Ag-110m and Ag-108m. To overcome this demerit, Au-In-Cd alloy was proposed. We studied to make ternary Au-In-Cd alloy and successfully done it at the maximum temperature of 1123 K with diffusion of the cadmium into the gold. Uniformity of the alloy was confirmed with EDX analysis. Thermal conductivity of Au-In-Cd alloy was 87.7 W/m/K. These results show enough performance as a decoupler.