TAURO - A CERAMIC COMPOSITE STRUCTURAL MATERIAL SELF-COOLED PB-17LI BREEDER BLANKET CONCEPT

The use of a low-activation (LA) ceramic composite (CC) as structural material appears essential to demonstrate the potential of fusion powe r reactors for being inherently or, at least, passively safe. Tauro is a self-cooled Pb-17Li breeder blanket with a SiC/SiC composite as str ucture. This study determines the required improvements for existing i ndustrial LA composites (mainly SiC/SiC) in order to render them accep table for blanket operating conditions. 3D SiC/SiC CC, recently launch ed on the market, is a promising candidate. A preliminary evaluation o f a possible joining technique for SiC/SiC is also described.