Overview of advanced techniques for fabrication and testing of ITER multilayer plasma facing walls

Abstract

The design of the ITER primary first wall incorporates a multi-layered structure consisting of a layer of beryllium bonded to a layer of copper alloy with embedded stainless steel tubes which in turn is bonded to a stainless steel structure. In this configuration, the stainless steel provides structural support, the copper alloy improved resistance to high heat loads, and the beryllium layer a low Z metal interface with plasma. Fabrication, testing and control of this multi-layered structure, and indeed the entire blanket shield module, calls for advanced methods. Several associations in the four home teams and their industrial partners have been involved in various fabrication and joining tasks now grouped under L4 blanket project. In this paper, an overview of the work done so far for joining stainless steel to stainless steel, stainless steel to copper alloy, copper alloy to copper alloy, and copper alloy to beryllium is presented. Specialised papers dealing with most of the topics treated here are scheduled in this symposium. The fabrication and joining methods presented here, other than the conventional welding and brazing, follow four main routes. Two of them make extensive use of hot-isostatic pressing (HIP); (a) solid to solid; (b) solid or powder to powder, with or without a prior cold or hot isostatic pressing of one of the products. The third combines advantages of casting and HIPping for fabricating large and complex parts. The fourth investigates the possibility of using explosive welding for joining copper alloys to stainless steel. Other methods, including friction welding, are investigated for specific parts. After a brief recall of considerations leading to selection of individual materials, specifications derived for wrought and powder products are presented. Optimised conditions for bonding steel to steel, copper to copper and steel to copper are tabulated and preliminary results obtained from tests on joints are compared with the values obtained for parent materials. Also presented in the paper are the results obtained from high heat flux testing of small scale mock-ups. Throughout the paper the collaboration with industry in defining specifications for reference products, fabrication routes, and construction of large scale mock-ups and their testing are referenced.