Coatings for fusion reactor environments

Abstract

The internal surfaces of a toroidal magnetically confined fusion reactor control the impurity injection and gas recycling into the fusion plasma. Coating of internal surfaces may provide a desirable and possibly necessary design flexibility for achieving the temperatures, ion densities and containment times necessary for net energy production from fusion reactions. In this paper the reactor environments experienced by various components are reviewed along with possible materials responses. Characteristics of coating-substrate systems that are important to fusion applications are delineated and the present status of coating development for fusion applications is reviewed. Coating development for fusion applications is just beginning and poses a unique and important challenge for materials development.