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Extreme materials environment of the fusion “fireplace”

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Abstract

Commercial fusion energy will require an energy-producing fusion plasma core (the “fire”) surrounded by an integrated engineering system (the “fireplace”). This article focuses on the extreme materials requirements of the fusion “fireplace,” which has the following intertwined functions: (1) a first wall that faces and survives the intense fluxes of energetic particles and photons emanating from the fusion core without overly poisoning the fusion plasma; (2) transferring the heat from the captured particle/photon flux via a coolant medium and heat exchanger toward useful applications (e.g., electricity generation or high-grade heat for industrial processes); and (3) providing a closed fuel cycle, which for deuterium–tritium fusion concepts means breeding, extracting, and separating tritium and reinjecting it back into the fusion core. This article will emphasize key opportunities in fusion materials research for enabling and accelerating the development and demonstration of commercial fusion energy, ranging from plasma-facing materials through the first wall and blanket structural and functional materials and plasma-heating systems to the high-field magnets.

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Acknowledgments

This work was sponsored in part by the Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy (DOE) under Grant No. DE-SC0006661 with The University of Tennessee (SJZ). We thank S.C. Hsu (DOE) for useful input and for providing Figures 1 and 2. All authors contributed to the writing and revisions for this article.

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  1. Departments of Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, USA

    Steven J. Zinkle

  2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA

    Steven J. Zinkle

  3. UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon, UK

    Amanda Quadling

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Zinkle, S.J., Quadling, A. Extreme materials environment of the fusion “fireplace”. MRS Bulletin 47, 1113–1119 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43577-022-00453-9

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