Tauro: a ceramic composite structural material self-cooled Pb-17Li breeder blanket concept

The use of a low-activation (LA) ceramic composite (CC) as structural material appears essential to demonstrate the potential of fusion power reactors for being inherently or, at least, passively safe. Tauro is a self-cooled Pb-17Li breeder blanket with a SiC/SiC composite as structure. This study determines the required improvements for existing industrial LA composites (mainly SiC/SiC) in order to render them acceptable for blanket operating conditions. 3D SiC/SiC CC, recently launched on the market, is a promising candidate. A preliminary evaluation of a possible joining technique for SiC/SiC is also described. (orig.)