This problem is going to be explored in the IFMIF project. IFMIF-DONES is currently in the engineering design phase.EnergyUnlimited wrote:@Tanada,
OK, lats say that they (whoever are "they") got this fusion reactor working.
Now tell me, how they are going to handle these pesky 14 MeV neutrons?
There will be an immense corrosion of reactor walls... very frequent maintenance and associated costs etc.
International Fusion Materials Irradiation FacilityThe International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, also known as IFMIF, is a projected material testing facility in which candidate materials for the use in an energy producing fusion reactor can be fully qualified. IFMIF will be an accelerator-driven neutron source producing a high intensity fast neutron flux with a spectrum similar to that expected at the first wall of a fusion reactor using a deuterium-lithium nuclear reaction.
Background
The deuterium-tritium fusion reaction generates mono-energetic neutrons with an energy of 14.1 MeV. None of the commonly available neutron sources are adequate for fusion materials testing for various reasons. The construction of IFMIF is recommended in the European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures Report.
IFMIF-DONESThe early construction of an 'Early DEMO' requires the accelerated construction of a neutron irradiation plant. This initial irradiation plant will have reduced specifications in terms of accumulated damage of the irradiated materials (30-40 dpa instead of 150 dpa). Thus, in the European framework it was decided to design and build a facility capable of producing the specified amount of damage as soon as possible. A discussion period was opened to determine the specifications of this so-called Early Neutron Source (ENS).
Following a proposal by the LNF, the design adopted for ENS is DONES (DEMO-Oriented Neutron Source), which basically consists of a simplification of IFMIF. Currently, the ENS is one of the EUROfusion Work Packages.
DONES will thus be similar to IFMIF but will only have one accelerator, and it will only include the irradiation modules required to test the structural materials, without a laboratory for the characterization of the irradiated samples. Based on these simplifications, both the cost and the time required for the design and construction of the facility will be significantly reduced. Also, DONES is being designed in such a way that it could eventually be upgraded in order to meet the full capabilities of IFMIF. The objective of the ENS project in the framework of EUROfusion (2015-2018) is the development of the R&D and the engineering activities required to start the construction of the facility before 2020.
The IFMIF-DONES project: preliminary engineering designIn this paper, an overview and the present status of the IFMIF-DONES engineering design is presented for a generic site, making emphasis on the recent design evolution from previous phases.
IFMIF-DONESsteps for implementation
EUROfusion and Fusion for Energy (F4E) started in 2015 a process to develop the engineering design of DONES and to identify possible EU sites to host the facility. In December 2017, F4E positively evaluated the joint Spain-Croatia proposal to site DONES in Granada. As the IFMIF-DONES enters the Roadmap 2018, it will be eligible for the Preparatory Phase grant by the EC and, simultaneously, will begin the Implementation Phase with the initial steps for the construction of the civil engineering infrastructure.