Present status of ITER test blanket development

As one of the engineering test programs in ITER, the test blanket program, which utilizes ITER as a test bed to develop breeding blanket systems for fusion DEMO plants, has been planned and advanced. The Test Blanket Working Group (TBWG) has been organized to review and coordinate test programs on Test Blanket Modules (TBM). Five breeding blanket concepts have been proposed and discussed in the TBTG, and Japan is participating in the development of all of these concepts. This paper describes the status of TBM design, blanket technology and materials development for ITER TBMs. The current design and R and D status of candidate TBM concepts, which include 1) a water-cooling system with a solid breeder, 2) a helium gas-cooling system with a solid breeder, 3) a lithium-lead (LiPb) breeding system, 4) a liquid lithium breeding system, and 5) a molten salt breeding system, are presented and discussed. (author)