Methods for forecasting performance limits of fusion reactor structural materials

Abstract

For the purposes of both developing appropriate alloys for fusion reactors and ultimately designing and building such devices, it is necessary to determine the mechanical response to high energy neutron irradiation of candidate structural materials. The current and near-term facilities for providing the requisite testing environment are either limited by dissimilarity to fusion reactor environments (i.e., fission reactors), or irradiation volume, or both. This necessitates the development of both a testing technology commensurate with the available facilities — i.e., primarily small specimen technology — and a correlation methodology which recognizes the limitations of the anticipated data base and maximizes the use of that data. In this paper we (1) describe a general philosophy for such correlation methodologies, (2) provide a brief overview of small specimen test techniques and data characteristics, and (3) demonstrate with several examples how correlations can be developed and applied.