FPN10-18

Fusion Materials Test Facilities Activities Underway

March 6, 2010

In 2007, the European Union and Japan entered into a collaborative agreement, generally referred to as "the broader approach" to fusion, that consists of looking at technologies and facilities that would be required, in addition to ITER, to lay the basis for a fusion power plant. One such is the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF).

At Rokkasho, Japan, an IFMIF team consisting of about 20 people (soon to be 40) seconded from Japan, France, Italy, Germany and Spain have been coordinating the detailed design activities taking place in many European and Japanese institutes. The project is in what is called the Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) phase.

According to IFMIF Proect Leader Pascal Garin, several prototypes are being developed, including an accelerator "whose characteristics are well beyond the present state of the art" and a lithium test loop "to check all thermo-hydraulic characteristics of this very innovative system." In IFMIF, a parallel pair of 40 MeV Deuterium nuclei accelerators will interact with a fast flowing film of liquid lithium to generate the 14 MeV neutrons that will, in turn, impact small samples of materials. Garin says "The flux rate will be slightly above that of a reactor. In six years of operation we (will) create a degradation equivalent to about ten years of continuous (fusion reactor) operation."

The prototype accelerator is being manufactured mainly in Europe and will be tested in 2011 at CEA-Saclay. The lithium loop prototype will be installed in a dedicated facility at Orai, not far from Naka, Japan. The IFMIF team hopes that the process for deciding on a site to build IFMIF will be decided in the next few years and that a final IFMIF design report, i,e,, one that allows for IFMIF construction, will be ready "four or five years from now."