Utilização do tungstênio e suas ligas como material de primeira parede em reatores de fusão nuclear

Abstract

Energy generation through nuclear fusion emerges as a promising alternative to meet the growing energy demands of the future. Nevertheless, the selection of materials for components operating under extreme conditions in the plasma environment remains a major challenge. From this perspective, tungsten and its alloys are seen as good candidates to be applied as first wall materials in future commercial reactors, due to their excellent thermal properties, including a high melting temperature and high thermal conductivity, as well as their favorable characteristics concerning plasma-wall interactions, such as low triton retention and high resistance to sputtering erosion. The present work covers aspects such as temperature, heat fluxes, particle irradiation, and other phenomena related to plasma-wall interactions. Afterwards, through comparisons between tungsten and its alloys and other materials previously used in reactors such as beryllium, carbon fiber composites, and molybdenum, an investigation was conducted with regard to the properties that best fit the application and considerations for future studies were provided. Then, it was verified that tungsten and its alloys are suitable materials and strong candidates for future reactors, as they exhibit superior properties compared to other materials intended for application in the same region of the reactor, despite their limitations arising from their inherent brittleness at room temperature.