Initial studies of low-activation joining of dissimilar materials are presented in this poster.Joining cWC and RSBs to steels is an important qualification step to the qualification of cWC and RSBs as practical materials. While the practice of cWC to steels is well-known, commonly used brazing alloys are composed of highly activating elements including Ag, Zn and Zn, which are not suitable for use in an activating environment.This work explores copper-based brazing solutions for cWC and RSBs

1.5 MeV Proton and ⁶⁰Co gamma irradiation of cWC and RSB materials was performed in 2022 at the Dalton Cumbria Facility. This is the first time that both cWC and RSB materials have been irradiated using either of these methods.

This work investigates the radiation response of cWC at different depths from the incident face (IF) of the sample using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

While polishing-induced stress is considerable, all irradiated samples showed significant degradation of pattern quality relative to control cWC. Temperature at irradiation was observed to be as significant a variable as the type of radiation. The most significant radiation-induced damage was observed in 410K proton irradiated and 90 kGy 77K gamma irradiated sample