Materials for plasma facing components of fusion reactors

Abstract

According to current knowledge and understanding, nuclear fusion can be developed to a sustainable energy technology. Fuel is abundant and key points as fusion power production and alpha particle heating have already been demonstrated. The next-step device ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is designed to demonstrate net power production and to address most of the technological issues on the way to a power reactor. There is, however, a

Main chamber sources and edge transport of tungsten in H-mode plasmas at ASDEX Upgrade

“…The erosion rate of tungsten is much less than for the lighter elements, which substantially increases the lifetime of the respective plasma facing components (PFC) in a fusion reactor [1]. However, use of tungsten also implies the risk of strong central power losses by impurity radiation due to its high cooling factor at large temperatures.…”

Recent progress in research on tungsten materials for nuclear fusion applications in Europe

“…Details of the experiment are reported in [50,51]. The coating provided by PLANSEE is made of a top layer (1.8 mm) of porous W and an interlayer region (also plasma-sprayed) where steel and W droplets were co-deposited on the actively cooled substrate [52]. The coating survived 720 cycles under a heat load of 2 MW/m² [53].…”

Effect of He-appm/DPA ratio on the damage microstructure of tungsten

“…Tungsten (W) is regarded as the primary candidate for use as a plasma facing material in the divertor of the ITER and DEMO fusion reactors due to its high melting temperature (~3400°C), low sputter yield and high thermal conductivity (~170 W.m -1 .K -1 at room temperature) [1]. However, during service, the divertor will be exposed to high heat fluxes, radiation damage from 14.1 MeV neutrons and He injection from the plasma as well as He production from (n,α) reactions.…”