In the second half of 2024, Russian specialists plan to conduct experiments in China and South Korea using unique domestic material that can be used at the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER) being built in Cadarache, France.
“The choice of material for the first wall of a fusion reactor, where the plasma will be contained by a magnetic field, is a super-urgent issue,” said Anatoly Krasilnikov, Director of the ITER Design Centre (part of Rosatom),on the sidelines of the III Congress of Young Scientists.
“We will produce the first samples of the material before the new year and by April we will conduct the first experiments in Russia, at TRINITI [Troitsk Institute of Innovation & Thermonuclear Research] and at MEPhI [the Moscow Engineering & Physics Institute]. Then, by agreement with partners in China and South Korea, we plan to test the material using their tokamaks in the second half of 2024. The plasma can be held in those facilities for a sufficient time to test all the necessary properties of the material,” he said.
The material of the first wall of the ITER thermonuclear reactor must satisfy a number of requirements, including heat resistance, strength, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and others. According to Krasilnikov, the unique material has already been presented to the project participants and “made a tremendous impression on them”. He added: “All partners are interested in us making samples and bringing them for testing. We won’t give anything away to anyone, but we can start a joint research and development programme,” he said.
Image: The construction site of ITER in Cadarache, France (courtesy of ITER)
