Eberhard Diegele

Status of R&D activities on materials for fusion power reactors

Current R&D activities on materials for fusion power reactors are mainly focused on plasma facing, structural and tritium breeding materials for plasma facing (first wall, divertor) and breeding blanket components. Most of these activities are being performed in Europe, Japan, the Peoples Republic of China, Russia and the USA. They relate to the development of new high temperature, radiation resistant materials, the development of coatings that will act as erosion, corrosion, permeation and/or electrical/MHD barriers, characterization of candidate materials in terms of mechanical and physical properties, assessment of irradiation effects, compatibility experiments, development of reliable joints, and development and/or validation of design rules. Priorities defined worldwide in the field of materials for fusion power reactors are summarized, as well as the main achievements obtained during the last few years and the near-term perspectives in the different investigation areas.

Modular He-cooled divertor for power plant application

Gas cooled divertor concepts are regarded as a suitable option for fusion power plants because of an increased thermal efficiency for power conversion systems and the use of a coolant compatible with all blanket systems. A modular helium cooled divertor concept is proposed with an improved heat transfer. The concept employs small tiles made of tungsten and brazed to a finger-like structure made of Mo-alloy (TZM). Design goal was a heat flux of at least 15 MW/m 2 and a minimum temperature of the structure of 600 °C The divertor has to survive a number of cycles (100-1000) between operating temperature and room temperature even for the steady state operation assumed. Thermo-hydraulic design requirements for the concepts include to keep the pumping power below 10% of the thermal power to the divirtor plates, and simultaneously achieving a heat transfer coefficient in excess of 60 kW/m 2 K. Inelastic stress analysis indicates that design allowable stress limits on primary and secondary (thermal) stresses as required by the ITER structural design criteria are met even under conservative assumptions. Finally, critical issues for future development are addressed.