Ponente
Descripción
Advanced coatings and permeation barriers are increasingly recognized as enabling technologies for the deployment of liquid breeder blankets in future fusion reactors. In PbLi-based systems, coatings are expected to play a critical role in mitigating corrosion, controlling tritium permeation, improving material compatibility, and extending component lifetime under the extreme thermo-mechanical and irradiation conditions foreseen in DEMO.
Recent developments in coating technologies have focused on the fabrication and optimization of oxide, ceramic and multifunctional barriers compatible with liquid breeder environments. Significant progress has been achieved in understanding coating behaviour under thermal exposure, flowing PbLi conditions and coupled corrosion-permeation phenomena. In parallel, current research is evolving toward more technologically relevant approaches, including coating integration in complex geometries, scalability of deposition methods and assessment under representative operational conditions.
Despite these advances, the qualification of coatings for fusion applications still faces major challenges due to the limited availability of irradiation facilities capable of reproducing fusion-relevant neutron spectra and damage levels. In this context, DONES will provide a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale developments and reactor-oriented validation. This contribution discusses ongoing coating developments for liquid breeder applications and analyses how DONES could become a key infrastructure for their qualification through dedicated experimental campaigns.