Achievement lays foundation for cost-effective manufacturing
A United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) working group has successfully demonstrated the industrial scale production of fusion-grade steel, an achievement which has the potential to reduce production costs “by an order of magnitude” and improve the efficiency of future nuclear fusion power plants.
The breakthrough by the Neutron Irradiation of Advanced Steels (Neurone) consortium saw the production of fusion-grade reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel on an industrial scale, using a seven-tonne electric arc furnace at the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) in Middlesborough, northeast England.
David Bowden, group team leader for materials science and engineering at UKAEA and Neurone programme lead, said one of the major challenges for delivering fusion energy is developing structural materials able to withstand the extreme temperatures of at least up to 650 °C and high neutron loads required by future fusion power plants.
The high temperatures and radiation levels caused by the high neutron loads arise as a result of the fusion reaction. The structural materials therefore serve an important role maintaining the integrity of the fusion powerplant under these conditions.
The Neurone production approach has the potential to dramatically decrease production costs by up to 10 times compared to conventional RAFM counterparts, using existing and readily scalable infrastructure.
MPI led the trials which enabled the manufacture, testing and analysis of specialist high temperature steels initially at laboratory scale leading to industrial scale trials in their electric arc furnace.
Richard Birley, Neurone project lead at MPI said the production of 5.5 tonnes of fusion-grade RAFM steel lays the foundation for cost-effective manufacturing of these types of fusion steel for future commercial fusion programmes.
The Neurone consortium is a £12m (€14m, $14.6m) collaboration between UKAEA’s materials division and academic and industry partners across the UK, as well as international partners, which provide access to neutron irradiation facilities. UKAEA is the national organisation responsible for the research and delivery of fusion energy.
Neurone was established to research, test and develop steels to operate at higher temperatures compared to conventional counterparts. This will maximise the capacity of fusion machines to extract heat, which is used to power turbines and create electricity, improving the overall efficiency of fusion power plants.
