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Activation and Radiation Damage Characteristics of W-Based Divertor of ARIES Power Plants

A. Robinson, L. El-Guebaly, D. Henderson

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 60 / Number 2 / August 2011 / Pages 715-719

Nuclear Analysis & Experiments / Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12469

Currently, there is an ongoing international effort to develop and characterize W alloys that are suitable for fusion applications. In this report, five key W alloys were examined for the advanced divertor design of ARIES-ACT - the latest ARIES tokamak design. The most promising alloys appear to be W-1.1TiC and W-La2O3. At the end of the divertor lifetime (~4 years), the maintenance dose of these alloys very closely matches those of W with nominal impurities. Unfortunately, even with pure W, the divertor is not clearable, which indicates that it must be recycled or disposed of in a geological repository. The radiation damage and transmutation are expected to degrade the physical properties of any material. The radiation damage level in W is low compared to ferritic steel - a remarkable feature for tungsten. For ARIES-ACT operating conditions, transmutation of W does not appear to present a significant issue.