Neutron damage is a major deciding factor in the commercialisation of a fusion power plant. Neutron damage inflicted on the walls of the reactor during operation, leads to changes in the behaviour of materials and ultimately decides the life time of the component. Consequently, it is essential that fusion relevant materials are tested under fusion irradiation conditions in order to qualify them, prior to use. Tungsten is a key material for the plasma facing component in a fusion reactor, and is

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... located directly in the path of high energy fusion neutrons. Currently, it is not possible to test the change in material behaviour under high energy neutrons as there exits no high flux fusion neutron source. Moreover, high flux fission reactors are unable to re produce the high energy neutron damage. However, this work demonstrates the use of 30 MeV protons to induce fusion relevant neutron damage on tungsten. This work involves the first irradiation of tungsten using high energy protons (30 MeV). A complete irradiation cycle, including irradiation planning, sample design and manufacturing, polishing, irradiation, the setting up of post irradiation devices and post irradiation investigation was carried out within the scope of this work. Optimal sample geometry for accelerator irradiations, which is also directly comparable and compatible with fission reactor irradiations, was manufactured. The sample holder was designed such that in-situ temperature measurements were possible for the first time. Additionally, hot cell and remote handling conforming, punch and indentation testing have been developed and demonstrated through the use of irradiated active samples. In order to understand proton damage, pure tungsten was irradiated using three different proton energies 3, 16 & 30 MeV. The 3 MeV proton irradiation produces pure displacement damage, while the 16 & 30 MeV induce a combination of displacement and transmutation damage. Moreover, instrumented indentation was performed on the irradiated samples in a radiation [...]