Lifetime Analysis of First wall Materials Exposed to High Temperature and High Energy Neutrons in a Fusion Reactor

Abstract

At first wall of a fusion power reactor will be subjected to neutrons, charged particles and radiation, leading to neutron irradiation damage, decrease of thickness by physical sputtering, and high heat flux, respectively. As a consequence, the present state of the art requires first wall replacement after only a few years of operation. On-going efforts to solve this problem include work on the mechanisms of such irradiation induced damages as swelling, void formation and relevant mechanical properties, plasma—wall interaction and thermal stresses. Because of the complexities a computer code is required to account for such factors. As an extreme case of abnormal operation, a plasma disruption scenario is considered leading to analysis of melting, resolidification and evaporation, including elastoplastic stress.