Talk:International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility

Merge of Fusion power
Lots of useful info on materials in fusion reactors, should have at least some bits included. Merge complete - Jak (talk) 21:58, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Merge - Jak (talk) 17:53, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Site and timetable
Has a site been chosen? The article currently states Preparation for IFMIF construction is expected to have begun around 2006. The article links to http://www.frascati.enea.it/ifmif/ whose news page appears to have been last updated in 1996. The ITER article states ITER will run in parallel with a materials test facility, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF), but ITER seems far more advanced. The ITER article links to http://www.iter.org/Future-beyond.htm which shows IFMIF starting construction in 2008, which would indicate to me that unless the site has been chosen, they are running behind time. Andrewa 14:17, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Site and Timetable
March 2007

From: “Fusion News” (pdf) [Dr] Pascal Garin nominated IFMIF-EVEDA Project Leader

The Deputy Director of the Agence ITER France and former leader of the European ITER Site Studies, Pascal Garin, has been nominated Leader of the IFMIF-EVEDA project.

The Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) is part of the Broader Approach Agreement between the EU and Japan. IFMIF will be an accelerator-based neutron irradiation facility that will focus on developing and characterising fusion reactor materials. The facility’s key aim is to provide intense high energy neutrons with a sufficient irradiation volume to enable the realistic testing (in terms of intensity and duration) of candidate materials and components for use in a demonstration reactor plant and in future fusion plants. IFMIF will thus play an essential role in the development of future fusion reactors.

The EVEDA phase of IFMIF will be jointly conducted by Europe and Japan, the location of the Joint Team being Rokkasho, Japan. The validation process consists of the design, manufacturing and test of three prototypes: the low energy part of one of the two accelerators, the lithium target and the test facilities, in particular to simulate in realistic conditions for the future materials samples. The budget for the project amounts to 150 million Euro for the EVEDA programme and one billion Euro for the construction of IFMIF. Thirty people (16 professionals and 14 support staff) will support Pascal Garin in getting the project started.

By May this year, the infrastructure in Japan should be ready for the team to take up work, and Pascal Garin plans to move in June. “Even though I am going away, it is like coming back”, the 50 year old physicist said. After having operated in the realm of politics in recent years, Garin says he is glad to finally come back to science and to have been chosen as leader of the IFMIF project.

[see also: http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/physics/FEC/FEC2006/talks/t_ft_1-3.pdf] Polymorph 14:01, 19 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Surely some of this should go into the article? Andrewa (talk) 14:52, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

News?
The main external link from this article http://www.frascati.enea.it/ifmif/ doesn't seem to have been updated snce 1997!

This may well be a case of no news being very bad news. In any case the article needs updating. Andrewa (talk) 14:52, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

(9 September 2010) There is actually some news from 2008 and 2009 at http://irfu.cea.fr/en/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_technique.php?id_ast=2271, so it seems that the work on IFMIF has not been completely abandoned - though, again, there is no mention of any construction programme beginning soon. Did funding get suspended for years? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.42.124.243 (talk) 16:15, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Update needed
The latest refs on the timescale seem to be about 2016, with many 2013 or earlier. The latest updates to the refs  have not helped. Andrewa (talk) 05:49, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

Objectives
This article on IFMIF is unfortunately largely misled. The reader gets the impression from the article, that plasma facing components (PFC) or respectively their materials are of importance in IFMIF. Carbon and Tungsten are highlighted in the article. In fact, as the introduction states correctly, IFMIF is an artificial neutron source based on the nuclear stripping reaction of accelerated deuterons (40MeV) on a 2-3cm thick liquid lithium target. In fact, there is no plasma, and thus specific effects like sputtering of carbon can not be studied.

Primary objectives of IFMIF are the studies of high-energy neutron irradiadion effects in structural materials, such as reduced activation ferritic-martensitic steels (grades like Eurofer, F82H) and possibly Vanadium grades. The IFMIF neutron source is tailored to produce high displacements per atom (dpa) rate, similar gas production rates (Helium, Hydrogen) and similar recoil spectra (Primary knock-on atom spectra, PKA-Spectra) in the test materials as would be experienced in a fusion reactor blanket. Since other neutron sources such as fission reactors do not produce enough neutrons in the high energy range (and can thus not reach high enough gas production rates, for example), IFMIF will provide the unique facility for such studies.

Secondary objectives of IFMIF are the studies of breeder materials (containing lithium) such as the ceramics Lithium-Orthosilicate (Li4SiO4) Lithium-Metatitanate (Li2TiO3) or liquid Lithium-Lead relevant for several breeder blanket concept.

Further possiblities to irradiate other functional materials of a fusion reactor, like parts of magnet coils, instrumentation, widows) are currently under evaluation.

The project is currently developed under the IFMIF EVEDA phase (as Andrewa found in the article cited above) and progressing nicely. Prototypes for the accelerator, the lithium target and the high flux test module (key components of IFMIF) are developed and built in institutes in europe and japan. There is, however, not yet a site selection or construction date for the facility itself.

Sources are several scientific articles, which are unfortunately not free of cost, but hints are given in the abstracts:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920379611001219

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092037960800495X

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920379611000433 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.3.117.89 (talk) 10:00, 11 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for that, and yes, I was making the very mistake you highlight. Of course there are important considerations in choosing the plasma facing material that IFMIF can't address as there is no plasma there for them to face. Very good point.


 * Do the sources you cite say anything about the remote handling racilities that IFMIF will use? These might also give a valuable insight into the comparison between the waste problems of fusion and fission power. Andrewa (talk) 21:33, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

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=Website I Found In Case Others Haven't Seen It=
 * I don't have time to look into this right now, but i did do a quick search and found this link:
 * https://www.ifmif.org/

Eric Lotze (talk) 17:49, 27 September 2022 (UTC)