Research Needs for Magnetic Fusion Energy Sciences - US Burning ...

Multiple-Effects — Study interactions of multiple effects in operating components to understand the
combined impact of the fusion environment and the complexity of typical fusion components.
Power extraction and tritium breeding components (in-vessel) are geometrically complex, operate
in a very complex environment, have multiple functions, multiple materials and many material
interfaces. tritium processing components (ex-vessel) must both produce on-spec products
(relying on multiple fundamental parameters), and contain and account for tritium with high efficiency
and accuracy. synergistic phenomena will likely dominate the behavior, as well as failure
modes and reliability of designs and prototypes.
multiple effect experiments with different combinations of conditions are necessary, for instance,
combined thermal and liquid metal mhd facilities, heat flux and magnetic field facilities, plasmabased
facilities, fission reactors with integrated fusion coolant and breeder capabilities, etc. such
research will help (a) choose materials and designs that satisfy the competing requirements of the
components, (b) provide data to verify models or identify areas in need of further fundamental
research and model development, (c) compile the needed reliability and safety database necessary
to validate codes, and (d) prepare for more fully integrated fusion environment testing in iteR or
an FnsF, and for demo.
The testing facilities themselves can be upgrades of existing facilities when possible, and new facilities
when required. each facility and the program to build and perform the experiments can
be thought of as roughly similar (but slightly smaller) scale to plasma physics “proof of principle”
experiments. a significant subset of this effort should include the development and testing of
engineering diagnostics and remote maintenance approaches, techniques and equipment. These
capabilities are clearly needed for both for the design and operation of demo, but more immediately
for performing fusion environment experiments and testing in future fusion devices. a specific
program to develop these capabilities is urgently required, executed in conjunction with the
experimental programs and facility designs that must use them.
one of the key upcoming multi-effect experimental opportunities will be the iteR test blanket
module (tbm) program. The iteR test module size, neutron flux, magnetic field and pulse length
are each significant enough to provide a suitable test environment consisting of all important fusion
conditions that affect first wall and breeding blanket systems and diagnostics. The strong,
spatially complex magnetic field is a key parameter, especially for liquid metal blankets. The neutron
damage, while generally small for structural materials, is significant enough to observe the
impact of key phenomena in ceramic insulators or solid breeders, including swelling and electrical
property changes. determining how the combined environmental conditions and prototypic geometry
of module-scale experiments affect performance will be invaluable information for firstwall
blanket systems design, simulation validation, safety, licensing, and reliability growth programs.
significant prior separate effect and partially integrated experiments are a prerequisite,
both to be able to fabricate and qualify tbm experiments for iteR, but also to be able to fully understand
and interpret the experimental results.
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