Feasibility of /sup 3/HeD/sup 6/LiD thermal-to-fusion neutron converters for fusion reactor materials testing

/sup 3/HeD//sup 6/LiD thermal-to-fusion (E=14 MeV) neutron converters have been developed at the IWW-2M reactor to simulate the irradiation of structural materials in a fusion reactor. These converters increase the highest energy part of the neutron spectrum (E>14 MeV) by /spl ap/10/sup 10/ n/(Cm/sup 2//spl middot/s) in the reactor's test channel (/spl ap/6-cm diam.), corresponding to a 14-MeV neutron fluence of /spl ap/2/spl middot/10/sup 16/ n/cm/sup 2/ per 500-hour reactor cycle. However, the high energy release (up to 1-2 kW/gr) in the converters from the/sup 6/Li(n,T)/spl alpha/ and /sup 3/He(n,T)p exothermal reactions created there can be a critical problem in conducting experiments of this kind.