  The bulk irradiation of materials with 10-30 MeV protons promises to advance
the study of radiation damage for fission and fusion power plants. Intermediate
energy proton beams can now be dedicated to materials irradiation within
university-scale laboratories. This paper describes the first such facility,
with an Ionetix ION-12SC cyclotron producing 12 MeV proton beams. Samples are
mm-scale tensile specimens with thicknesses up to 300 um, mounted to a cooled
beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for
radioactive specimens at high temperature (500+ {\deg}C) and/or vacuum
represents the conditions in fission and fusion systems, while a digital image
correlation system remotely measures strain. Overall, the facility provides
university-scale irradiation and testing capability with intermediate energy
protons to complement traditional in-core fission reactor and micro-scale ion
irradiation. This facility demonstrates that bulk proton irradiation is a
scalable and effective approach for nuclear materials research, down-selection,
and qualification.
