Boron Carbide Coating Tested for Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor Walls
The results of tests carried out at the Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS showed the competitiveness of boron carbide coatings with tungsten and beryllium, which are often considered when choosing a protective material for the first wall and divertor of modern tokamaks. Boron carbide is very strong and has relatively good thermal conductivity. There are two options for using boron carbide – it can completely replace tungsten or be applied to tungsten walls as a protective coating.
The tokamak-based system will be used in the large experimental fusion reactor – ITER. This is an international project in which, in addition to scientists from Russia, specialists from Japan, China, Korea, India, the USA, and European countries take part. The main task of the ITER team is to create a reactor in which the plasma will support its combustion itself. ITER is a necessary step towards fusion power plants. In a reactor, it is first necessary to ‘ignite’ the plasma and then achieve high efficiency.