Testing of high heat flux components manufactured by ENEA for ITER divertor

ENEA is involved in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) R and D activities and in particular in the manufacturing of high heat flux plasma-facing components, such as the divertor targets. During the last years ENEA has manufactured actively cooled mock-ups by using different technologies, namely brazing, diffusion bonding and HIPping. A new manufacturing process that combines two main techniques PBC (Pre-Brazed Casting) and the HRP (Hot Radial Pressing) has been set up and widely tested. A full monoblock medium scale vertical target, having a straight CFC armoured part and a curved W armoured part, was manufactured using this process. The ultrasonic method was used for the non-destructive examinations performed during the manufacturing of the component, from the monoblock preparation up to the final mock-up assembling. The component was also examined by thermography on SATIR facility (CEA, France), afterwards it was thermal fatigue tested at FE200 (200 kW electron beam facility, CEA/AREVA France). The successful results of the thermal fatigue testing performed according the ITER requirements (10 MW/m2, 3000 cycles of 10 s on both CFC and W part, then 20/15 MW/m2, 2000 cycles of 10 s on CFC/W part, respectively) have confirmed that the developed process can be considerate a candidate for the manufacturing of monoblock divertor components. Furthermore, a 35-MW/m2 Critical Heat Flux was measured at relevant thermal-hydraulics conditions at the end of the testing campaign. This paper reports the manufacturing route, the thermal fatigue testing results, the pre and post non-destructive examination and the destructive examination performed on the ITER vertical target medium scale mock-up. These activities were performed in the frame of EFDA contracts (04-1218 with CEA, 93-851 JN with AREVA and 03-1054 with ENEA).