Neutron computed tomography of plasma facing components for fusion experiments

In nuclear fusion experiments, divertor plates are used to remove energy and particles from the plasma. These divertor plates can be made of water-cooled copper heat sinks covered by carbon fiber composite (CFC) protection tiles. During operation, surface temperatures in excess of 1000 oC are reached for typical heat loads of 10 MW/m2. The large mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion for CFC and Cu causes high stresses and possibly bonding defects. Growing joint defects, which lead to unacceptable overheating of the protection tiles, are critical for the lifetime of the components. A prototype component was subjected to 10,000 cycles at 10 MW/m2 to study the crack growth mechanism. Neutron computed tomography offers the possibility to analyze such structures on centimeter-sized samples non-destructively with a high spatial resolution. At the ANTARES neutron imaging facility of the FRM II reactor, the samples were loaded with a contrast agent and examined with neutron computed tomography.