Must we use ferritic steel in TBM?

Abstract

Mock-ups of DEMO breeding blankets, called Test Blanket Modules (TBMs), inserted and tested in ITER in dedicated equatorial ports directly facing the plasma, are expected to provide the first experimental answers on the necessary performance of the corresponding DEMO breeding blankets. Several DEMO breeding blanket designs have been studied and assessed in the last 20 years. At present, after considering various coolant and breeder combinations, all the TBM concepts proposed by the seven ITER Parties use Reduced-Activation Ferritic/Martensitic (RAFM) steel as the structural material. In order to perform valuable tests in ITER, the TBMs are expected to use the same structural material as corresponding DEMO blankets. However, due to the fact that this family of steels is ferromagnetic, their presence in the ITER vacuum vessel will create perturbations of the ITER magnetic fields that could reduce the quality of the plasma confinement during H-mode. As a consequence, a legitimate question has been raised on the necessity of using RAFM steel for TBMs structural material in ITER. By giving a short description of the main TBM testing objectives in ITER and assessing the consequences of not using such a material, this paper gives a comprehensive answer to this question. According to the working group author of the study, the use of RAFM steel as structural material for TBM is judged mandatory.