Manufacturing technology development for vacuum vessel and plasma facing components

Vacuum vessel and plasma facing components of the ITER construction including shield modules and primary first wall panels have great impact on the production costs and reliability of the installation. From the manufacturing technology point of view, accuracy of shape, properties of the various austenitic stainless steel/austenitic stainless steel interfaces or CuCrZr/austenitic stainless steel interfaces as well as those of the base materials are crucial for technical reliability of the construction. The current approach in plasma facing components has been utilisation of solid-HIP technology and solid–powder-HIP technology. Due to the large size of especially shield modules shape, control of the internal cavities and cooling channels is extremely demanding. This requires strict control of the raw materials and manufacturing parameters.