Novel material for a fusion power plant / compound material
with optimised properties
Tungsten is particularly suitable as material for highly
stressed parts of the vessel enclosing a hot fusion plasma, it being the metal
with the highest melting point. A disadvantage, however, is its brittleness,
which under stress makes it fragile and prone to damage. A novel, more
resilient compound material has now been developed by Max Planck Institute for
Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching. It consists of homogeneous tungsten with
coated tungsten wires embedded. A feasibility study has just shown the basic
suitability of the new compound.