Materials Selection and Development for the ARC Fusion Power Plant

Lauren Garrison

Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

12:00pm

NW17-218 Hybrid

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is currently constructing the SPARC tokamak while in parallel designing the first ARC fusion power plant.  CFS is striving to be the first company to achieve commercial fusion power.  Although fusion materials have been developed and researched for decades, there are still gaps that need to be closed to transition low technology readiness level solutions to those which can be deployed at scale in a fusion power plant.  While SPARC will represent a major step forward in the development of fusion plasmas, the material conditions on SPARC will be relatively benign compared to ARC.  ARC materials will experience extreme conditions of high temperatures, high neutron flux, and exposure to FLiBe molten salt which acts as the coolant and breeding blanket.  To ensure good enough thermal contact, and a thin enough structure for proper tritium breeding, the plasma-facing material will have to be monolithically integrated with the underlying structural material.  A special feature of the ARC design is that the first wall, divertor, and vacuum vessel components will be replaceable after a set service period and before the lifetime of the ARC device.  Here we will discuss how neutrons degrade materials and why the ARC conditions are so challenging compared to other fusion and fission devices around the world.  The major materials challenges and the CFS strategy for ARC materials development will also be covered.

Bio:  Dr. Garrison is a Senior Materials Scientist at Commonwealth Fusion Systems. She oversees materials development and testing projects for the ARC fusion power plant as well as solving near-term materials challenges for the SPARC experimental fusion device.  Her areas of expertise include neutron irradiation of materials, refractory materials as plasma facing components, plasma-material interactions, and composite development.  She previously spent 9 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during which time she was a Weinberg Fellow and group leader of the Advanced Nuclear Materials Group.  Dr. Garrison holds a bachelors from the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a masters and PhD from the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is the Chair of the Fusion Energy Division of the American Nuclear Society.