Manufacturing and testing of a Be/OFHCCu divertor module

Abstract

Beryllium, carbon-based materials and tungsten are considered as plasma facing materials for the next generation of fusion machines such as the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). Beryllium is one of the primary candidate materials because of its low atomic number and lack of tritium codeposition. However, joining of a beryllium armor to a copper heat sink remains a critical problem due to the formation of brittle intermetallics at the interface. To address this concern, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute manufactured a beryllium/Cu divertor module with Cr and Ni diffusion barriers. This Be/Cu module was tested in the electron beam test system of Sandia National Laboratories in the framework of the US—Japan Fusion Collaboration. The divertor module consisted of four beryllium tiles, 25 mm × 25 mm, and a square copper heat sink with convolutions like a screw nut inside the coolant channel. To evaluate the integrity of the brazed bonds under various heat fluxes, beryllium tiles of two different thicknesses, 2 and 10 mm, were bonded to the copper heat sink. Cooling conditions of 10 m/s water flow velocity at 1 MPa, and a water inlet temperature of 20°C were selected based on the thermal analysis. During high heat flux testing the 10 mm thick Be tiles detached at an absorbed heat flux around 5 MW/m 2 for several shots due to flaws at the braze joint confirmed by optical observation after manufacturing. One of the 2 mm thick Be tiles failed after 550 cycles at the steady state heat flux of 6.5 MW/m 2. Most likely the failure was caused by brittleness at the interface caused by the presence of BeCu intermetallics.