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Porous tungsten scrubbed by glow discharge cleaning
Researchers conducted experiments in Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Lithium Tokamak Experiment-Beta (LTX-β) showing glow discharge cleaning can be used to effectively clean samples of porous tungsten—used to hold liquid lithium in fusion machine inner walls—manufactured from powder-reconstituted materials, according to a paper published in Nuclear Materials and Energy.
Tungsten is widely used for plasma-facing components in fusion machines, especially in the divertor region where materials must withstand extreme levels of power flow. According to the paper, spark plasma sintering can be used to make tungsten into spongelike samples for holding liquid lithium.
Yutuo Wang, Yintao Li, Zhengquan Zhang, Mengqing Xiao, Changwen Chen, Yuanlin Zhou, Shanqiang Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 3 | March 2024 | Pages 501-510
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2232646
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear facilities generate large amounts of contaminated stainless steel metallic material during maintenance and decommissioning. As a new radioactive decontamination method, the self-brittle decontamination method has the advantages of fewer secondary contaminants and can be operated remotely mechanically. The addition of a certain amount of corrosive components to the self-brittlement composite decontaminant can achieve the dual function of self-brittlement and corrosion decontamination. The performance of the decontaminant was investigated by single-factor experiments using electrochemical tests, morphological observations, and weight loss tests. The results show that the decontaminant has good self-embrittlement. When the concentration of HCl is 2.50 mol/L, HNO3 is 3.50 mol/L, NaCl is 0.10 mol/L, and FeCl3 is 0.15 mol/L, the decontaminant is formulated to have the best corrosion and decontamination effect on stainless steel. The detergent will produce a uniform corrosion layer on the surface of stainless steel, and the average corrosion depth can reach 8.3268 μm.