Ponente
Descripción
A key challenge in the development of magnetic confinement fusion power plants is the reliable exhaust of heat and particles. Divertor plasma-facing components (PFCs) must therefore withstand extreme thermal and particle loads, including neutron irradiation, which progressively degrades critical material properties. Current divertor PFC concepts typically rely on a monolithic tungsten (W) armor joined to a copper (Cu) alloy heat sink. This architecture combines the plasma compatibility of tungsten with the high thermal conductivity of a copper-based heat-sink structure. Ensuring the thermomechanical integrity of the individual constituents and their joints throughout the operational lifetime of the PFC is essential.
For this reason, advanced material concepts, such as W-fiber-reinforced composites, as well as optimized joining and manufacturing routes, are being pursued. These approaches will be combined with modelling in the future to understand irradiation-induced microstructural changes in the individual constituents and their consequences for mechanical properties. However, the degradation of material and interface properties under fusion-relevant neutron irradiation remains a major challenge and an open question for reliable PFC design. Current modelling approaches and experimental databases still rely largely on non-fusion-prototypic irradiation conditions, such as ion bombardment or neutron irradiation in fission reactors. For complex materials and joints, neutron irradiation is particularly important for assessing mechanical properties, because only neutrons provide the required bulk penetration and volume damage representative of component-relevant conditions. In addition, such irradiation data are essential for validating predictive computational models. Against this background, this contribution will present materials and PFC design concepts as well as planned computational model developments conducted at the Plasma Material Interaction and Components (P2W) division at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. In this context, gaps for fusion material qualification will be addressed from a neutron irradiation requirements perspective.