Fabrication of divertor mock-up with ODS-Cu and W by the improved brazing technique

Copper alloy has been considered as a divertor cooling tube or heat sink not only in the helical reactor FFHR-d1 but also in the tokamak DEMO reactor, because it has a high thermal conductivity. This work focused on applying an oxide dispersion strengthened copper alloy (ODS-Cu), GlidCop® (Cu-0.3 wt%Al2O3) as the divertor heat sink material of FFHR-d1. This alloy has superior high temperature yield strength exceeding 300 MPa at room temperature even after annealing up to ~1000 °C. The change in material properties of Pure-Cu, GlidCop® and CuCrZr by neutron irradiation are summarized in this paper. A primary dose limit is the radiation-induced hardening/softening (~0.2 dpa/1–2 dpa) which has a temperature dependence. According to such an evaluation, the GlidCop® can be selected as the current best candidate material in the commercial base of the divertor heat sink, and its temperature should be maintained as close as possible to 300 °C during operation. Bonding between the W armour and the GlidCop® heat sink was successfully performed by using an improved brazing technique with BNi-6 (Ni-11%P) filler material. The bonding strength was measured by a three-point bending test and reached up to approximately 200 MPa. Surprisingly, several specimens showed an obvious yield point. This means that the BNi-6 brazing (bonding) layer caused relaxation of the applied stress. The small-scale divertor mock-up of the W/BNi-6/GlidCop® was successfully fabricated by using the improved brazing technique. The heat loading test was carried out by the electron beam device ACT2 in NIFS. The mock-up showed an excellent heat removal capability for use in the FFHR-d1 divertor.