Application of tungsten–copper composite heat sink materials to plasma-facing component mock-ups

The exhaust of power and particles is currently considered as one of the ultimate challenges in view of the design of a power producing magnetic confinement thermonuclear fusion device, like DEMO. One predominantly challenging aspect in this regard is the design and manufacture of divertor target plasma-facing components (PFCs) that have to sustain substantial particle, heat and neutron fluxes during fusion operation. With respect to the design of highly loaded actively cooled PFCs, copper (Cu) alloys are currently regarded as state-of-the-art structural heat sink materials (HSM). However, it has been underlined that the use of Cu alloys in PFCs implies issues mainly due to the behaviour of these materials under neutron irradiation characterised by a pronounced loss of ductility at lower and a loss of strength at elevated temperatures. These operating temperature limitations impose a strong constraint on the design of divertor PFCs and have regarding DEMO in the literature been termed a high impact design engineering risk. Against this background, the development of tungsten–copper (W–Cu) composites as potentially advanced HSMs for highly loaded PFCs was pursued by the authors during recent years. The progress of these developments is discussed in the present paper in terms of results of high-heat-flux tests conducted on PFC mock-ups that comprised W–Cu composite material heat sinks. Overall, the results of these tests indicate that W–Cu composites can indeed be regarded a viable class of advanced materials for the heat sink of highly loaded PFCs. (topical issue article)