Advanced cutting, welding and inspection methods for vacuum vessel assembly and maintenance

Recent progress toward development of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels for fusion structural applications

“…Most likely a suite of NDE techniques and procedures will be needed to effectively inspect the large volume of welded and bonded material. A number of studies have been performed to assess the efficiency of several NDE techniques to detect and size defects in various components for ITER [48][49][50][51][52][53] and work is underway in the EU to develop the necessary inspection methods for TBM. It is imperative that such work focuses on detection and sizing of realistic flaws that could occur during fabrication and operation of mockups and components manufactured with the technologies to be used for commercial production of fusion power systems.…”

Specific welds for test blanket modules

“…Fusion welding may be performed either by electron beam (with and without filler wire), laser beam, hybrid MIG/ laser [5][6][7], or by tungsten-inert-gas (gas tungsten arc) welding with filler wire. Mechanical properties and microstructure of some electron beam (EB) and tungsten-inert-gas (TIG) welds of reduced activation 8-9Cr-WVTa steels (like EUROFER) and 9Cr-MoVNb steels (like P91) have been already investigated in the past, even after neutron irradiation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Diffusion weld study for Test Blanket Module fabrication

“…The necessary welding techniques may be divided into two groups: diffusion or solid phase welding [2,[5][6][7][8], and fusion welding (electron beam, laser beam, hybrid MIG/laser [9][10][11]), whereas the first is either performed in a hot isostatic press (HIP) or in a uniaxial hydraulic press, both after different specific joint preparations.…”