Consolidation of HIP bonding technologies for the ITER first wall panels

Over the last decade alternative technologies for the manufacture of the ITER first wall blanket have been progressively developed. Now, as the build of ITER approaches, the manufacturing route is being consolidated around the best solutions found to date. This paper reviews the development of the HIP bonding technologies and discusses the latest results from components produced by AMEC NNC under the auspices of EFDA. The manufacturing stages, non-destructive examination and heat flux test results from the work are presented for the latest first wall prototype components. It is concluded that the technologies developed will allow the production of components which meet the heat flux performance requirements for ITER. As part of this work a low temperature Be/Cu alloy bonding process has been developed which is compatible with both DS-Cu and PH-Cu alloys.