Manufacture of an ITER primary wall module shield prototype by powder hipping

Abstract

The Shield Prototype manufactured by the European Home Team is representative of the Primary Wall Module No. 11 as designed for the ITER 1998 Design. This module was selected because it had the most complicated shape to fabricate due in particular to its double curvature in poloidal and toroidal directions. It consists of a stainless steel Shield block of about 4 tons, equipped with eight penetration holes through it and with all the features at the rear and side walls required for the module attachment system. All these requirements led to a complex cooling channel arrangement inside the module, making the fabrication by powder Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIPping) very attractive and competitive. This paper describes the main steps of the Shield Prototype manufacture and the results of the non-destructive examination. These results, which shall be confirmed by destructive examination, have shown so far the manufacturing feasibility by powder HIPping of the Shield of ITER Primary Wall Modules.