The IFMIF test facilities design

IFMIF, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, is being developed by Europe, Japan, USA and Russia under the umbrella of the IEA. As the construction of a fusion demonstration reactor, DEMO, for demonstrating competitive electrical power generation will be the next important program milestone after ITER, the timely availability of a sound materials database has become an indispensable element in international fusion road maps. The primary mission of IFMIF is to generate a materials irradiation database for the design, construction, licensing and safe operation of DEMO. Based on a recently completed comprehensive design report, IFMIF is ready to enter an Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activity (EVEDA) phase with a subsequent start of construction around 2011. All mayor subsystems of the IFMIF test facility architecture like the Target and Test Cell, the access and maintenance cells as well as the hot cells are fully remote controlled and allow division into radiation zones. Sophisticated remote handling technologies originally developed for fission reactors are inevitably required, especially for assembly and maintenance of the Li-target and test assemblies. The present status of the test facilities is reviewed and major advances during the past few years in the irradiation performance as well as in the nuclear Target and Test Cell design are highlighted.