Demountable Vacuum Seals for Fusion Reactor Applications

摘要

Demountable vacuum seals for fusion reactor applications must be compatible with the reactor environment, easily scalable, very reliable and readily maintained by remote handling methods. We are investigating gate valves as well as flanges in our efforts to provide such seals. They are all metal and scalable without becoming massive and require no axial fasteners. Preliminary tests on an initial 30 cm aluminum flange using no soft metal coatings or gaskets have given several vacuum tight closures. Weld fatigue of this preliminary design caused degradation of the seal with further cycling to leakage levels of 10 sup -6 Tl/sec, which is acceptable with differential pumping for either valves or flanges. Additional flange pairs using slightly altered geometry, fabrication techniques, and seal plating materials will be tested and reported on. (ERA citation 13:007001)