| Scope |
Development of fusion energy and its harnessing has been a hot topic of research for long. Many developments have been made in this respect, but these are mostly circumscribed around development of physics behind generation of plasma and its confinement using magnetism or inertial motion. Rigorous research has been carried out to expand our knowledge about instrumentation and actuators as well. However, there is very limited growth about understanding how a material can behave when exposed to extremely harsh conditions of Helium Irradiation in plasma? This is primarily limited by the very nature of problems encountered in the process. Intense heat, combined with rigorous motion of particles pose serios threats to materials integrity and bizarre structure are observed such as “fuzz”, surface blisters, nanochannels, cavities and bubbles. This severely limits materials integrity and inflict serious damage to its durability and stable performance in an environment of charged ions, gases and heat. Materials quickly loose their surface finish – a prerequisite for durability and stability and becomes useless for further use. It not only gets tarnished by effect of irradiation but plasma itself becomes unstable in such circumstances with serious damage to stability of magnetic field and performance.
Last decade, however, has seen some progress in this field in which various types of purpose build geometries are proposed to be engineered into potential materials forming certain types of networks which help outgassing of He during fusion. It is hypothesized that this will help reduce material degradation and enhance its life and durability. Various methods such as physical vapor deposition, microstructure control, solidification processing and interface crystallography is proposed to be adopted as potential solution.
This symposium aims to address and discuss these advancements.
Light will be shed on
a. various mechanisms by which materials degrade in heavy ion or Helium irradiation
b. abnormal structures formed and observed
c. materials characterizations
d. potential solution to problem
e. techniques adopted to form nanostructures to avoid abnormalities and
f. results obtained after implementation of these techniques and use of radiation damage tolerant material in actual service conditions
It will bring scientists, engineers, researchers and practicing professionals from academia, research and industry to discuss the problem and devise solution to develop efficient plasma facing materials. |