In September 2020, ASIPP completed the mass production of the W/Cu plasma facing units (PFUs) for the WEST (W-Tungsten-Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) divertor, and the PFUs had been delivered to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The research team adhered to independent innovation, making breakthrough in the mass production of high-performance rolled tungsten materials and mastering several key technologies such as tungsten/ copper, chromium/ zirconium/ copper multilayer thermostatic pressing composite. And also solved some new technical problems, such as precise control of the gap size between tungsten monoblocks and quality control of the welding interfaces during the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process, and raised the heat removal capability of the W/Cu PFUs to 20MW/m2. This marks a new breakthrough in the key manufacturing technology of divertor in China: the production of W/Cu PFUs for the divertor have started to be applied from the domestic to the international stage, and also demonstrates that China has become one of the countries achieving mass production of W/Cu PFUs. This scientific research achievement was selected as the highlight of the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the fourth quarter of 2020 of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The W/Cu PFUs in delivery ceremony site

The W/Cu PFUs for the WEST divertor