Fabrication and testing of small mock-ups for helium cooled ceramic reflector breeding blanket development

Abstract

Korea has developed a helium cooled ceramic reflector test blanket module (TBM) for fusion reactors. An advanced reduced activation alloy has been developed as a structural material and various joining methods such as E-beam welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, laser welding, and hot isostatic pressing have been applied to establish its fabrication method and procedure. Based on the current design of the TBM and breeding blanket, TIG welding was selected as the main joining method, and the U-shaped first wall (FW) was adopted. For welding of the breeding blanket, a special joining technique without a permanent backing strip with simultaneous full penetration welding in accordance with the design rules of class N2RX of RCC-MRx is required for the pressure vessel. For the U-shaped FW, distortion of the drilled cooling hole during the bending should be limited. Three small mock-ups were fabricated in this study to investigate these issues. The joints and bending parts were visually observed after cutting, and the hydrostatic pressure test was performed for regions with low thickness. The results show that the proposed fabrication methods are applicable in the fabrication procedure development for the breeding blanket.