Development of electrically insulating coatings on vanadium alloys for lithium-cooled blankets*

The self-cooled lithium blanket concept with a vanadium structure offers a potential for high performance with attractive safety and environmental features. Based on blanket design studies, it became apparent that electrically insulating duct walls would be required to reduce the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pressure drop for liquid metal-cooled blankets for high magnetic field fusion devices. As a result, development of insulator coatings was recommended as the most appropriate approach for resolving this issue. Oxides such as CaO, Y2O3. BeO. MgO, MgAl2O4, and Y3Al2O12 and nitrides such as AlN, BN and Si3N2 were initially considered potential candidate coating materials. Based on results of scoping studies, CaO and AlN have been selected as primary candidates for further development. Progress on the development of CaO and AlN coatings, including in-situ formation and electrical properties measurements, are summarized in this paper.