The 7th International Workshop on Carbon Materials

Abstract

The International Workshop on Carbon Materials, held in Stockholm on the 21st and 22nd of September 1995, was theseventh meeting in the series designed to highlight recent progress in studies and development of plasma facing materialsfor controlled fusion devices. The meeting was organized in a close cooperation between the groups from the RoyalInstitute of Technology (KTH) - Stockholm and Research Centre (KFA) in Juelich - Germany. It is worthwhile to mentionthat the workshop was for the first time organized outside Germany; all previous meetings of the series were held at theKFA - Juelich.The workshop was sponsored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences through its Nobel Institute for Physics, theSwedish Natural Science Research Council, the Royal Institute of Technology and the City of Stockholm.The symposium gathered 48 registered participants from Germany, Japan, Sweden, France, the United States, Italy, theUnited Kingdom, Russia, Poland and India. The scientists were coming from the leading plasma physics and fusion-relatedmaterials research laboratories.Presentations included 16 invited talks and several oral presentations given both by the researchers and representativesof industrial companies developing plasma facing materials and components. Moreover, the Toyo Tanso Ltd. (Japan)organized an exhibition of the Company products. Ample time was allowed for discussions and "hot" topic presentations.The workshop was preceded (September 20) by the EU Meeting on Tritium Removal in Controlled Fusion Devices.The programme consisted of three major topics concerning: neutron irradiation effects in materials, hydrogeninteraction-tritium inventory phenomena and comparison of carbon materials and beryllium for fusion applictions. Thespeakers presented both an overview and details of the field. For the first time, the results of the influence of radiationdamage on the tritium inventory in the materials were presented by scientists from Europe, Japan and the United States. Afew other talks dealt with a detailed description of the change in microstructure and thermo-mechanical properties in theneutron irradiated graphites, carbon-based composites and beryllium. Several presentations were concerned with erosion ofthe first wall materials in fusion devices. The issues of chemical erosion and formation of thick co-deposits (layers containing hydrogen isotopes together with plasma impurity species) and their impact on the operation of future devices were alsodeeply addressed and discussed. The present status of the design of the ITER (International Thermonuclear ExperimentalReactor) first wall and blanket was presented by the members of the ITER Team. Studies and development of new carbon-based materials and plasma sprayed beryllium layers with improved thermo-mechanical properties were summarized by themembers of several research laboratories and industrial companies.On behalf of the Organizing and Programme Committees I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the sponsorsand participants for making the symposium very fruitful and interesting.