Development of a copper alloy to beryllium HIP bonding technology for the ITER first wall

The primary first wall (PFW) panels of the ITER blanket concept comprise a bi-metallic copper alloy/stainless steel water-cooled heatsink faced with a plasma facing material. Precipitation strengthened CuCrZr is one option for the copper alloy of the heatsink; beryllium, in the form of tiles is an option for the plasma facing material. Over recent years, the technology needed to HIP bond the beryllium tiles to CuCrZr alloy has been developed. This paper describes small samples and larger mock-ups produced during the development of this HIP bonding technology and outlines how structural analyses were used to gain an understanding of the bonding process and refine the design.