Technical Paper: PIM International, Vol.1 No. 1 March 2007, pages 50-52, 1277 words

Authors: R. Zauner, A. Altenburger and R. Nagel

ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Materials Research, A-2444 Seibersdorf, Austria

Abstract

The international community decided recently that the ITER nuclear fusion test reactor will be built in Cadarache, France. In the toroid plasma ring energy densities of up to 20 MWm-2 are predicted. Therefore only few materials, one of them being tungsten, are suitable as divertor elements. On a second layer behind the tungsten elements, copper is used for thermal management. At ARC Seibersdorf prototypes of tungsten shingles (95 mm x 30 mm x 5 mm) with a structured surface for an enhanced interface with the copper cooling layer were produced using powder injection moulding. These tungsten elements will be partly infiltrated with copper and then subjected to heat flux measurements. The results of this novel PIM application and of the FEM heat flux simulations are presented and discussed.

Introduction

The ITER nuclear fusion test reactor is based around a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million °C, and will produce 500 MW of fusion power. It is an international project involving The People’s Republic of China, the European Union and Switzerland (represented by Euratom), Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, under the auspices of the IAEA. It is technically ready to start construction and the first plasma operation is expected in 2016. ITER (Fig. 1) is to be constructed in Europe, at Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, France. After much discussion between the ITER Participants, the original four site choices in Canada, France, Japan and Spain, were narrowed down in 2003 to two sites, and finally in June 2005 to Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, France [1].

Nuclear fusion involves the bringing together of atomic nuclei. The atom’s nucleus consists of protons (p) with a single positive......

Further sections of this article include:

- Feedstock fabrication
- Component fabrication
- Results
- Discussion

Figures and Tables:

Fig. 1 Cross section through the ITER reactor [1]

Fig. 2 Divertor of the ITER reactor [1]

Fig. 3 Double-sigma compounder

Fig. 4 Mould frame with inserts

Fig. 5 Green injection moulded components

Fig. 6 Green and sintered components in comparison

Fig. 7 Surface structure of divertor component and FEM simulation results

Fig. 8 Temperature dependency of the CTE of the tungsten divertor component

Fig 9 Tungsten-copper sandwich-like component