A review of the US joining technologies for plasma facing components in the ITER fusion reactor

This paper is a review of the current joining technologies for plasma facin g components in the US for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Rea ctor (ITER) project. Many facilities are involved in this project. All of t hose facilities are not represented in the authors list but all contributio ns will be noted throughout the report and in the acknowledgements. Many un ique and innovative joining techniques are being considered in the quest to join two candidate armor plate materials (beryllium and tungsten) to a cop per base alloy heat sink (Glidcop, Elbrador). These techniques include braz ing and diffusion bonding, compliant layers at the bond interface, and the use of diffusion barrier coatings and diffusion enhancing coatings at the b ond interfaces. The development and status of these joining techniques will be detailed in this report. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.