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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Deep geologic repository progress—2025 Update
Editor's note: This article has was originally published in November 2023. It has been updated with new information as of June 2025.
Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; a core of white-and-bronze gneiss from the site of the future deep geologic repository in Eurajoki, Finland; several angular chunks of fine-grained, gray claystone from the underground research laboratory at Bure, France; and a piece of coarse-grained granite from the underground research tunnel in Daejeon, South Korea.
D. L. Youchison, J. W. Coenen, T. K. Gray, A. Lumsdaine, J. W. Klett, B. Jolly, M. Gehrig, S. Brezinsek, M. Rasinski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 6 | August 2019 | Pages 551-557
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1607706
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-density graphitic foam is an ideal low-Z plasma-facing material for deuterium-deuterium plasma experiments where tritium codeposition is not an issue. However, like all carbon, graphitic foam suffers from a precipitous drop in thermal conductivity at high temperatures, >600°C. To mitigate these problems, functionally graded layers of tungsten can be deposited to a thickness of 2 to 4 mm onto the plasma side of the foam using chemical vapor deposition. The graphitic foam then acts as a high-conductivity heat sink at temperatures below 600°C for the thin high-Z armor coating. The overall component weighs 18 times less than a comparable volume of tungsten and lacks the coefficient of thermal expansion joining issues between the CuCrZr tubing and the tungsten. This paper discusses the coating development and characterization and presents the results of recent plasma exposures in W7-X. It also reports on computational fluid dynamics heat transfer modeling and preparations for high heat flux testing of mock-ups. This hybrid plasma-facing component (PFC) consisting of innovative engineered materials may be a cost-effective, actively cooled solution for the divertors and other PFCs in long-pulse machines like W7-X and WEST.