About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2022 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
Symposium
|
Materials Systems for the Future of Fusion Energy
|
Presentation Title |
Composite Shielding for Advanced Fusion Systems |
Author(s) |
Lance Snead, Steven Zinkle, Jason Trelewicz, Ethan Peterson, David Sprouster, Bin Cheng |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Lance Snead |
Abstract Scope |
With significant improvement in High Temperature Superconductors (HTS), a number of projects are adopting HTS technology for compact fusion systems. While HTS irradiation tolerance is unclear, the lack of available space for shielding in compact fusion machines threatens the attractiveness of HTS. Current shield solutions use combinations of high-Z, low-Z, and absorbing materials such as W, H2O, and 10B. Unfortunately, as H2O is avoided for compact reactors and B-compounds suffer from irradiation instability and burnout, there are currently no hi-performance shielding materials to enable the potential performance of HTS technology. This presentation will review a relatively new ARPA-E program aimed at developing specifically engineered metal-matrix and ceramic-matrix composite shielding. These composites are notable insofar as they possess hydrogen densities similar to water through entrainment of neutron-absorbing hydrides. Shield effectiveness, implied stability, and the processing routes to entrain the relatively volatile hydrides in low-diffusivity metal and ceramic matrices will be reviewed. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
Keywords |
Composites, Nuclear Materials, Process Technology |