Advanced applications of diagnostics techniques to fusion reactor materials

Development of the future fusion reactors requires structural materials capable to withstand extreme operation conditions, including the exposure to 14 MeV neutrons and intense thermomechanical stresses. Furthermore, material technologies such as welding and joining, tiling, production of components having unusual size and shape must also be developed. Therefore the microstructural effects produced in such materials by irradiation or thermomechanical tests must also be studied by suitable 'diagnostic' techniques. In this work, after an introduction recalling the most critical material problems in fusion technology, several results are reviewed concerning the characterization of fusion-relevant materials by using radiation-based techniques such as neutron and X-ray scattering, positron annihilation and some other more common ones. (orig.)