Hydrogen retention in fusion reactor materials

聚变反应堆材料中的氢保留

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-05574
• 负责人: Davis, James
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709779
• 关键词: Hydrogen; retention; fusion; reactor; materials

Materials issues related to the interaction of solid surfaces with high temperature plasmas erosion, melting, redeposition, and tritium retention represent some of the greatest challenges in the design of current and future fusion reactors. For the past 35 years, our fusion materials group at U of T has been part of world-wide research activities in key areas related to the concerns above; namely, the erosion of, and hydrogen retention in, plasma-facing components in fusion reactors. In particular, our expertise in the trapping and transport of hydrogen in tungsten and in the removal of hydrogen-containing deposited layers closely match some of the greatest concerns. Within the area of plasma-materials interactions, my planned research for the next five years will focus on two key areas: 1) hydrogen trapping and transport in tungsten and 2) characterization and removal of carbon-based tokamak deposits. 1) Hydrogen in Tungsten: A key area of interest, and one in which we are uniquely equipped to investigate, is the co-bombardment of tungsten with hydrogen and other species; e.g., He, N, Ne, Ar., etc. Previous studies have shown that co-bombardment of tungsten with helium and hydrogen dramatically reduces the transport of hydrogen in tungsten materials. Ultimately, this could lead to orders of magnitude smaller tritium inventories in tungsten components in an operating reactor. Less is known about the effect of other species on hydrogen transport. With our dual-beam high-flux low-energy particle accelerator we are able to simultaneously expose specimens to two ion species (e.g., D+ and He+) with independently controlled energies and fluxes, allowing us to systematically investigate the fundamental aspects of such interactions. 2) Carbon-based Deposits: Material erosion is an inevitable consequence of the interaction between a fusion plasma and the solid surfaces which face the plasma. Eroded atoms enter the plasma and are, eventually, deposited on surfaces which may be far from their point of origin. In current tokamaks it is observed that much of the deposition occurs in specific areas, and these surfaces may accumulate thick (mm's) deposits which can seriously disrupt plasma operation. While we have studied many aspects of such deposits, we have been limited to deposits from current tokamaks (DIII-D, ASDEX-U and JET), all of which operate with base wall temperatures < 300 C. Future fusion reactors, however, are likely to operate at base temperatures above 700 C, leading to deposits with very different characteristics. While such high-temperature deposits are not currently available for us to test, we can simulate some aspects of the deposits through heating current deposits. The DIII-D tokamak plans to introduce heated internal surfaces which will provide appropriate specimens within the next few years.

与固体表面与高温等离子体侵蚀、熔化、再沉积和氚保留相互作用相关的材料问题是当前和未来聚变反应堆设计中面临的一些最大挑战。 在过去的 35 年里，我们多伦多大学的聚变材料小组一直参与与上述问题相关的关键领域的全球研究活动；即聚变反应堆中面向等离子体的部件的腐蚀和氢滞留。特别是，我们在钨中捕获和传输氢以及去除含氢沉积层方面的专业知识与一些最令人担忧的问题密切相关。在等离子体-材料相互作用领域，我未来五年的计划研究将集中在两个关键领域：1）钨中的氢捕获和传输；2）碳基托卡马克沉积物的表征和去除。 1) 钨中的氢：我们感兴趣的一个关键领域，也是我们具有独特研究能力的一个领域，是钨与氢和其他物质的共同轰击；例如He、N、Ne、Ar等。先前的研究表明，钨与氦和氢的共同轰击极大地减少了钨材料中氢的传输。最终，这可能导致正在运行的反应堆中钨组件中的氚库存减少几个数量级。关于其他物种对氢传输的影响知之甚少。借助我们的双束高通量低能粒子加速器，我们能够同时将样本暴露于两种具有独立控制能量和通量的离子种类（例如 D+ 和 He+），从而使我们能够系统地研究这种相互作用的基本方面。 2) 碳基沉积物：材料侵蚀是聚变等离子体与面向等离子体的固体表面之间相互作用的不可避免的结果。被侵蚀的原子进入等离子体，最终沉积在远离其原点的表面上。在当前的托卡马克中，观察到大部分沉积发生在特定区域，并且这些表面可能积累厚（毫米）的沉积物，这会严重干扰等离子体运行。虽然我们研究了此类沉积物的许多方面，但我们仅限于当前托卡马克装置（DIII-D、ASDEX-U 和 JET）的沉积物，所有这些装置的运行底壁温度都低于 300 C。然而，未来的聚变反应堆可能在高于 700 C 的基础温度下运行，导致沉积物具有截然不同的特性。虽然目前我们无法测试这种高温沉积物，但我们可以通过加热当前沉积物来模拟沉积物的某些方面。 DIII-D 托卡马克计划引入加热内表面，这将在未来几年内提供合适的样本。