Abstract
The Burning Plasma Experiment (BPX), formerly known as the Compact Ignition Tokomak, will be a major advance in the design of a fusion reactor. The successful construction of fusion reactors will require extensive welding of thick-section stainless steel plates. Severe service conditions will be experienced by the structure. Operating temperatures will range from room temperature (300 K) to liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K), and perhaps even lower. The structure will be highly stressed, and subject to sudden impact loads if plasma disruptions occur. This demands a combination of high strength and high toughness from the weldments. Significant portions of the welding will be done in the field, so preweld and postweld heat treatments will be difficult. The thick sections to be welded will require a high deposition rate process, and will result in significant residual stresses in the materials. Inspection of these thick sections in complex geometries will be very difficult. All of these constraints make it essential that the welding procedures and alloys be well understood, and the mechanical properties of the welds and their heat-affected zones must be adequately characterized.
Research sponsored by the Office of Fusion Energy, U.S. DeSubPartment of Energy, under contract DE-ACO5-840R21400 with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alexander, D.J., Goodwin, G.M. (1992). Thick-Section Weldments in 21-6-9 and 316LN Stainless Steel for Fusion Energy Applications. In: Fickett, F.R., Reed, R.P. (eds) Materials. Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, vol 38. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9050-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9050-4_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9052-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9050-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive