Materials engineering is already getting a huge boost

The first commercial power plants equipped with one or more nuclear fusion reactors will arrive, according to Eurofusion, the European association that promotes the development of fusion energy. swinging Sixties, However, to realize this milestone, it will be necessary to effectively solve many of the challenges this form of power generation still faces today.

Control, maintenance and stabilization of plasma confined at a temperature of at least 150 million °C inside a vacuum chamber; The production of tritium within the reactor itself (the other isotope of hydrogen involved in the nuclear fusion reaction is deuterium) or the elimination of impurities resulting from the reaction are some of the challenges that must be addressed.

Interestingly, as important as the three challenges we have just mentioned, there is another challenge that is often overlooked: for commercial fusion energy to come to fruition, new materials capable of handling it will have to be developed. It is necessary to do. This technology that brings hardness, It is necessary to develop a material both for the diverter, which is the “exhaust tube” through which the reactor gets rid of impurities, and for the first wall of the vacuum chamber, which is the surface that will bear the impact. Direct high energy neutrons from.

IFMIF-DONES plays a leading role in the development of demo materials

As physicists and engineers involved in the development of fusion energy have gained a better understanding of the reaction and behavior of plasma, they have realized something troubling: the ideal material for some reactor elements, such as the two we noted. Have done The previous paragraph does not exist. But it is possible to tune them. In fact, new types of steel have already been developed and tested in jet (united european torus), experimental reactor located in Oxford (England), and JT-60SA, fusion reactor installed in Naka (Japan).

In any case, the demo will be the definitive litmus test for the new materials to be used in the development of this reactor, especially those that will be used in the divertor and the internal lining of the vacuum chamber, which, as we have seen, most exposed part To accelerate neutrons in this extremely complex machine. Fortunately, IFMIF-Dones (International Fusion Materials Radiation Facility Demo-Oriented Neutron Source) Its going on. And lives in Granada (Spain).

The purpose of this project is to subject the candidate materials used in the demo to accelerated degradation, as they will have to endure in this demonstration nuclear fusion reactor. In short, it’s a complete test bed. The device that will be responsible for the irradiation of the candidate materials will be a linear particle accelerator that will “launch” a beam of fast neutrons towards them, which, although not identical to fusion, will produce very similar damage.

demo (demonstration power plant) will be a facility that will bring together all the knowledge acquired at ITER and IFMIF-DONES with the aim of demonstrating the feasibility of fusion reactors in the production of electricity. In any case, for Spain IFMIF-DONES is much more than an advanced particle physics laboratory. It does not currently have any world-class scientific facilities, but This will happen in 2033, In a little less than ten years, if everything goes according to plan, material radiation tests will begin in the research center that is already being built in Escújar (Granada).

The first results of radiation tests will come in 2035, two years after the launch of the linear particle accelerator that will form the real heart of IFMIF-DONES. However, the Eurofusion plan envisages that IFMIF-DONES will deliver its results to demos at several different times. The last one will come just before the start of construction of this latest demonstration fusion reactor, when the licenses are awarded. However, this will not be the end of the road for IFMIF-DONES.

The program of this project envisages a second phase during which a second particle accelerator will be designed and built. This machine will be part of the same neutron source and will allow scientists to conduct radiation tests Even stricter conditions Using approximately twice the flux of deuterons that would impact the same lithium target available for neutron production. At a minimum this would extend the program for two more decades.

This second accelerator will probably begin to be designed about ten years after the launch of the first, so there is no room for doubt in the numbers: radiation tests of materials that will provide knowledge for both demos and commercial power plants. The fusion that if everything goes well that came during the 60s will last for at least three decades. And during this time, Spanish science will sit at the same table as the most important scientific facilities on the planet.

More information | eurofusion

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