New Challenges for Radiation Tolerance Assessment: - from Deep Space Environments to Fusion Reactor Environments (Short Course Notebook - RADECS 2005)

This Short Course Notebook contains the manuscripts prepared by the instructors in conjunction with RADECS 2005 short course, which was held September 19, 2005 in Cap d'Agde, France. The Short Course format provides the opportunity to cover topics in more depth than is possible with contributed papers, but is intended to be tutorial in nature. It offers an opportunity for newcomers to get up to speed with radiation environments and radiation effects, and for the experts to turn his/her attention to unexplored areas of his/her art. My sincere desire is that this course will be interesting, informative and serve as an archival reference for radiation effects experts and students alike. The theme for the 2005 Short Course is "New Challenges for Radiation Tolerance Assessment - from Deep Space Environments to Fusion Reactor Environments". We decided to give the floor to experts dealing with radiation tolerance issues in large nuclear infrastructures like ITER, LMJ and CERN but also in other very demanding applications such as military space programs and deep space missions. Before we can understand the new radiation tolerance challenges, we will first lay a foundation in the underlying mechanisms of the interaction of radiation with matter in the first part of the course. The second part will focus on the different applications and its specificities. I would like to personally thank each of the Short course authors/presenters for their hard work and tireless efforts. A project of this magnitude requires a dedication of countless hours not seen on the surface. I would also like to thank Prof. Laurent Dusseau, the Radecs 2005 General Conference Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to organize this year's course. Laurent was very supportive and of great help throughout the year's work culminating in this course.