Fusion Materials with a Focus on Industrial Scale-Up

A special issue of Journal of Nuclear Engineering (ISSN 2673-4362).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 900

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung—Plasmaphysik, Partner of the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC), 52425 Jülich, Germany
Interests: nuclear fusion; plasma–material interaction; tungsten; refractory metal composites; fiber-reinforced tungsten; material sci-ence; sintering
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Guest Editor
1. Oxford Sigma, Oxford Centre for Innovation, New Road, Oxford OX1 1BY, UK
2. Nuclear Futures Institute, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG, UK
Interests: nuclear materials; ferritic-martensitic steels; neutron radiation damage; materials qualification

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fusion materials are critical to the development and scaling up of power from nuclear fusion. These materials must withstand extreme conditions such as high temperatures, plasma exposure, and neutron irradiation. Key challenges include ensuring the longevity and stability of these materials to enable continuous operation of future fusion power plants.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together recent research on the status of the industrial route toward providing materials for future fusion reactors, as well as to highlight the challenges faced in bringing the supply chain to maturity. The scope ranges from material requirements, types of fusion materials, and challenges in industrial scale-up to future prospects.

  1. Material Requirements:
  • Thermal Stability: endure high temperatures at the plasma–material interface
  • Radiation Resistance: withstand high neutron flux without significant degradation.
  • Structural Integrity: maintain mechanical strength under intense operational stresses.
  1. Types of Fusion Materials:
  • Plasma-Facing Materials (PFMs): tungsten and tungsten alloys, designed to handle direct exposure to the plasma.
  • Structural Materials: steels and special alloys that provide the reactor’s structural framework.
  • Breeder Materials: lithium-based ceramics or molten salts used in breeding blankets to produce tritium.
  1. Challenges in Industrial Scale-Up:
  • Material Production: scaling up production methods to meet the large volumes required for power plant construction.
  • Quality Control: ensuring consistent material properties across large quantities.
  • Cost Efficiency: developing cost-effective manufacturing processes to make fusion power economically viable.
  1. Current Research and Development:
  • Advanced Manufacturing Techniques: additive manufacturing and nanotechnology to enhance material properties and production efficiency.
  • Material Testing Facilities: high-flux neutron sources and plasma simulators for accelerated aging and performance testing.
  • International Collaboration: joint research initiatives such as ITER and DEMO, focusing on material innovation and testing.
  1. Future Prospects:
  • The development of new alloys and composite materials with enhanced performance.
  • The integration of AI and machine learning for predictive modeling and optimization of material properties.
  • Continued collaboration between academia, industry, and government to overcome technical and economic barriers.

In summary, the industrial scale-up of fusion materials involves addressing significant challenges in material production, quality control, and cost efficiency, with ongoing research focused on developing advanced materials and manufacturing techniques.

Prof. Dr. Jan Willem Coenen
Dr. Thomas P. Davis
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • plasma-facing materials
  • structural materials
  • breeder materials
  • quality control
  • upscaling
  • production of fusion materials
  • advanced manufacturing techniques
  • radiation resistance
  • structural integrity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 1699 KiB  
Article
Optimization of the LIBS Technique in Air, He, and Ar at Atmospheric Pressure for Hydrogen Isotope Detection on Tungsten Coatings
by Salvatore Almaviva, Lidia Baiamonte and Marco Pistilli
J. Nucl. Eng. 2025, 6(3), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/jne6030022 - 1 Jul 2025
Abstract
In current and future fusion devices, detecting hydrogen isotopes, particularly tritium and deuterium, implanted or redeposited on the surface of Plasma-Facing Components (PFCs) will be increasingly important to ensure safe machine operations. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique has proven capable of performing [...] Read more.
In current and future fusion devices, detecting hydrogen isotopes, particularly tritium and deuterium, implanted or redeposited on the surface of Plasma-Facing Components (PFCs) will be increasingly important to ensure safe machine operations. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique has proven capable of performing this task directly in situ, without handling or removing PFCs, thus limiting analysis times and increasing the machine’s duty cycle. To increase sensitivity and the ability to discriminate between isotopes, LIBS analysis can be performed under different background gases at atmospheric pressure, such as air, He, and Ar. In this work, we present the results obtained on tungsten coatings enriched with deuterium and/or hydrogen as a deuterium–tritium nuclear fuel simulant, measured with the LIBS technique in air, He, and Ar at atmospheric pressure, and discuss the pros and cons of their use. The results obtained demonstrate that both He and Ar can improve the LIBS signal resolution of the hydrogen isotopes compared to air. However, using Ar has the additional advantage that the same procedure can also be used to detect He implanted in PFCs as a product of fusion reactions without any interference. Finally, the LIBS signal in an Ar atmosphere increases in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), enabling the use of less energetic laser pulses to improve performance in depth profiling analyses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fusion Materials with a Focus on Industrial Scale-Up)
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