Status of development of fusion nuclear technology in Korea

The development strategy consists of several major programs: KSTAR for the study of a long-pulse, advanced tokamak operation, ITER for the burning plasma experiment, DEMO reactor for the demonstration of producing a net electricity from a fusion reactor, and a commercial fusion power plant. Fusion nuclear technologies have to be developed in parallel by making use of the expertise existing in the Korean fission program which shares key technologies with a fusion since there are many technology challenges that these advanced fission reactors (Generation IV) and fusion have in common and the fusion technology can be advanced by actively engaging and leveraging much of the common cross-cutting research. The fusion nuclaer technologies have been carried out in the framework of the National Promotion Plan of Fusion Energy and they include concept development of DEMO and its breeding blanket concepts, material and fabrication technology for a first wall and reactor structures. The breeding blanket is essential for characterizing DEMO, and its tritium breeding capability and heat removal capability will be tested in ITER as a Test Blanket Module (TBM) since one of the main objectives of the ITER is to test and validate the design concepts of tritium breeding blankets relevant to a power producing reactor. The breeding blanket activities are focused on the preparation of the two DEMO relevant blanket concepts; one is the Helium Cooled Solid Breeder (HCSB) blanket and the other is the He Cooled Molten Lithium/FS (HCML) blanket. Both blankets use He as a coolant, graphite as a reflector, and Ferritic/Martensits steel as a structural material. Supporting R and D for the TBMs have been performed in the area such as the development of design tools, joining technology of the Be/FMS and FMS/FMS, and thermal hydraulic experiments