Development of Manufacturing Technology of Radial Plate in Superconducting Coil for Fusion Reactor by Diffusion Bonding by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP)

Abstract

The radial plates (RPs), which is used in Toroidal field (TF) coil in ITER, are quite large, such as 13 m tall and 9 m wide, but thin, such as 10 cm thick, and are made of stainless steel. Even though they are very large structures, they require very high manufacturing tolerances and high mechanical strength at 4 K. The similar requirements will be required in the next generation fusion reactor. Therefore, the authors intend to develop efficient manufacturing methods in parallel with ITER TF coil RP manufacture. The authors therefore performed trial manufacture of the RP segments using a diffusion bonding method, namely Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). As a result of trials, it was clarified that even when HIPping is applied, the mechanical characteristic of base metal is not deteriorated. The machining period can be reduced by about 1/3 compared with the traditional manufacturing method. On the other hand, mechanical strength at 4 K is degraded due to weak bonding, that is no grain growth through joint, by HIPping. However, additional test indicates promising possibility of much better joint by higher temperature and joint surface treated HIPpings. These results justified that RP segment manufacturing is not only possible, but it is a technically valid manufacturing method that satisfies all requirements.