Pulse plasma sintering of a tungsten/steel divertor module

The paper presents the preliminary evaluation of the potential of a pulse plasma sintering (PPS) technique for the fabrication of a He-cooled modular divertor with a multiple-jet cooling module. In this work the W and WL10 elements were directly bonded by PPS. Examination of the microstructure revealed some minor defects at the interface, but the overall quality of the joint was good with no cracks or delamination being detected. To reduce the thermal stress gradient a thin transition layer of iron was used at the WL10/steel interface. In addition an attempt was made to fabricate the complete module by a single sintering process. The microstructures of the fabricated modules were examined and the findings were reported.