Status and issues of high-temperature and high-pressure water corrosion research of fusion structural materials in Japanese DEMO reactor development

Abstract

The activated corrosion product assessments of fusion structural materials are essential to designing components and evaluating workers’ radiation exposure. This paper first gives the R&D status of the high-temperature pressurized water corrosion study of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels and chromium–zirconium–copper (CuCrZr) alloys, which are the leading candidate materials of fusion reactor in-vessel components such as breeding blanket and divertor, which are utilized in high-temperature and high-pressure water, and the recent progress of corrosion test apparatus simulating the unique environment of a fusion reactor will also be presented.