Recent progress in the assessment of irradiation effects for in-vessel fusion materials: tungsten and copper alloys

TY - JOUR

T1 - Recent progress in the assessment of irradiation effects for in-vessel fusion materials: tungsten and copper alloys

AU - Terentyev, Dmitry

AU - Rieth, Michael

AU - Pintsuk, Gerald

AU - Riesch, Johan

AU - von Müller, Alexander

AU - Antusch, Steffen

AU - Mergia, Konstantina

AU - Gaganidze, Ermile

AU - Schneider, Hans-Christian

AU - Wirtz, Marius

AU - Nogami, Shuhei

AU - Coenen, Jan Willem

AU - You, J.-H.

AU - Zinovev, Aleksandr

AU - Van Renterghem, Wouter

N1 - Score=10

PY - 2022/1/6

Y1 - 2022/1/6

N2 - The present contribution highlights results of the recent irradiation campaigns applied to screen mechanical properties of advanced tungsten and copper-based materials—main candidates for the application in the plasma-facing components (PFC) in the European DEMO, which has also been presented at 28th IAEA fusion energy conference. The main challenges in the formulated irradiation programme were linked to: (I) assessment of the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of newly developed tungsten-based materials; (ii) investigation of an industrial pure tungsten grade under high temperature irradiation, reflecting operational conditions in the high flux divertor region; (iii) assessment of the high temperature strength of CuCrZr-based alloys and composites developed to enable the extension of the operational window for the heat sink materials. The development and choice of the advanced materials is driven naturally by the need to extend the operation temperature/fluence window thereby enlarging the design space for PFCs. The obtained results helped identifying the prospective tungsten and copper-based material grades as well as yielded a number of unexpected results pointing at severe degradation of the mechanical properties due to the irradiation. The results are discussed along with the highlights of the microstructural examination. An outlook for near future investigations involving in-depth post-irradiation examination and further irradiation campaigns is provided.

AB - The present contribution highlights results of the recent irradiation campaigns applied to screen mechanical properties of advanced tungsten and copper-based materials—main candidates for the application in the plasma-facing components (PFC) in the European DEMO, which has also been presented at 28th IAEA fusion energy conference. The main challenges in the formulated irradiation programme were linked to: (I) assessment of the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of newly developed tungsten-based materials; (ii) investigation of an industrial pure tungsten grade under high temperature irradiation, reflecting operational conditions in the high flux divertor region; (iii) assessment of the high temperature strength of CuCrZr-based alloys and composites developed to enable the extension of the operational window for the heat sink materials. The development and choice of the advanced materials is driven naturally by the need to extend the operation temperature/fluence window thereby enlarging the design space for PFCs. The obtained results helped identifying the prospective tungsten and copper-based material grades as well as yielded a number of unexpected results pointing at severe degradation of the mechanical properties due to the irradiation. The results are discussed along with the highlights of the microstructural examination. An outlook for near future investigations involving in-depth post-irradiation examination and further irradiation campaigns is provided.

KW - Irradiation

KW - Plasma facing materials

KW - Embrittlement

KW - Hardening

UR - https://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/47121436

U2 - 10.1088/1741-4326/ac4062

DO - 10.1088/1741-4326/ac4062

M3 - Article

VL - 62

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Nuclear Fusion

JF - Nuclear Fusion

SN - 0029-5515

IS - 2

M1 - 026045

ER -