Smart tungsten alloys as a material for the first wall of a future fusion power plant

Abstract

Tungsten is currently deemed as a promising plasma-facing material (PFM) for the future power plant DEMO. In the case of an accident, air can get into contact with PFMs during the air ingress. The temperature of PFMs can rise up to 1200 °C due to nuclear decay heat in the case of damaged coolant supply. Heated neutron-activated tungsten forms a volatile radioactive oxide which can be mobilized into the atmosphere.New self-passivating ‘smart’ alloys can adjust their properties to the environment. During plasma operation the preferential sputtering of lighter alloying elements will leave an almost pure tungsten surface facing the plasma. During an accident the alloying elements in the bulk are forming oxides thus protecting tungsten from mobilization.Good plasma performance and the suppression of oxidation are required for smart alloys. Bulk tungsten (W)–chroimum (Cr)–titanium (Ti) alloys were exposed together with pure tungsten (W) samples to the steady-state deuterium plasma under identical conditions in the linear plasma device PSI 2. The temperature of the samples was ~576 °C–715 °C, the energy of impinging ions was 210 eV matching well the conditions expected at the first wall of DEMO. Weight loss measurements demonstrated similar mass decrease of smart alloys and pure tungsten samples. The oxidation of exposed samples has proven no effect of plasma exposure on the oxidation resistance. The W–Cr–Ti alloy demonstrated advantageous 3-fold lower mass gain due to oxidation than that of pure tungsten.New yttrium (Y)-containing thin film systems are demonstrating superior performance in comparison to that of W–Cr–Ti systems and of pure W. The oxidation rate constant of W–Cr–Y thin film is 105 times less than that of pure tungsten. However, the detected reactivity of the bulk smart alloy in humid atmosphere is calling for a further improvement.