The design challenges of nuclear tokamaks – lessons learned so far

Tom Todd

Center for Fusion Energy

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

2:00pm

NW17-218

IAP Seminars

TFTR and JET are the only tokamaks so far to have operated with DT fuel, generating significant fluences of the 14MeV neutrons characteristic of DT fusion. These machines led the way for fusion in dealing with the radiological safety problems of tritium confinement, neutron streaming and structural activation, but ITER, currently nearing full design finalization and with much of the construction now well advanced, has several orders of magnitude greater challenges in those respects and will add significant nuclear heating and a small degree of radiation-induced damage. DEMO studies have to address all these issues with considerably more extensive radiation damage, taking the designers into the complexities and constraints of material selection as well as far more onerous requirements for the remote handling systems. This talk will describe some of the key challenges, both overcome and outstanding, and will include some lesser-known aspects which may surprise even the cognoscenti!