EU contribution to the procurement of the ITER blanket first wall

摘要

Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Union's Domestic Agency for ITER, is responsible for the procurement of about 50% of the ITER blanket first wall (FW), called normal heat flux FW. A procurement strategy has been implemented by the In-Vessel Project Team at F4E aimed at mitigating technical and commercial risks for the procurement of ITER blanket FW panels, promoting as far as possible competition among industrial partners. This procurement strategy has been supported by an extensive Research and Development (R&D) programme, implemented over more than 15 years in Europe, to develop various fabrication technologies. It includes in particular the manufacture and testing of small-scale, medium scale mock-ups and full-scale prototypes of blanket FW panels. In this R&D programme, significant efforts have been devoted to the development of a reliable materials joining technique. Hot Isostatic Pressing was selected for the manufacture of the FW panels made from beryllium, copper chromium zirconium alloy and 316L(N)-IG austenitic stainless steel.