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May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
The legacy of Windscale Pile No. 1
The core of Pile No. 1 at Windscale caught fire in the fall of 1957. The incident, rated a level 5, “Accident with Wider Consequences,” by the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), has since inspired nuclear safety culture, risk assessment, accident modeling, and emergency preparedness. Windscale also helped show how important communication and transparency are to gaining trust and public support.
E. Diegele, R. Andreani, R. Lässer, B. van der Schaaf
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 4 | May 2005 | Pages 829-835
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Fusion Materials | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A789
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper reviews the objectives and the status of the current EU long-term materials program. It highlights recent results, discusses some of the key issues and major existing problems to be resolved and presents an outlook on the R&D planned for the next few years. The main objectives of the Materials Development program are the development and qualification of reduced activation structural materials for the Test Blanket Modules (TBMs) in ITER and of low activation structural materials resistant to high fluence neutron irradiation for in-vessel components such as breeding blanket, divertor and first wall in DEMO. The EU strategy assumes: (i) ITER operation starting in 2015 with DEMO relevant Test Blanket Modules to be installed from day one of operation, (ii) IFMIF operation in 2017 and (iii) DEMO final design activities in 2022 to 2025. The EU candidate structural material EUROFER for TBMs has to be fully code qualified for licensing well before 2015. In parallel, research on materials for operation at higher temperatures is conducted following a logical sequence, by supplementing EUROFER with the oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steels and, thereafter, with fibre-reinforced Silicon Carbide (SiCf/SiC). Complementary, tungsten alloys are developed as structural material for high temperature applications such as gas-cooled divertors.
