NPRE faculty members April Novak and Daniel Andruczyk are part of new projects that have been selected for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
The funding is part of the Creating Hardened And Durable fusion first Wall Incorporating Centralized Knowledge (CHADWICK) program, which aims to explore promising alloy design spaces and manufacturing processes to develop next generation materials to strengthen the a fusion power plant’s first wall, which surrounds the fusion core.
Novak’s group has been awarded $1.87 million to develop an open-source centralized library to assess and document the radioactivity of materials that are being used in fusion power plants. The tool will be made available to the fusion community to rapidly assess new materials and their techno-economic impact on the cost and anticipated electricity generation of fusion power plants.
The proposed project addresses the challenge of siloed computational workflows across fusion engineering teams, which has historically hindered collaboration and workforce development.
“We are thrilled to join ARPA-E’s CHADWICK program in solving a major challenge to fusion materials development – centralizing activation and techno-economic analysis methodologies by providing fast-running, open-source capabilities to evaluate material suitability for fusion end-users accounting for activation- and cost-related design criteria,” Novak, an assistant professor, said. “We’re looking forward to working with ARPA-E and to take a major step towards commercializing fusion technology.”
UIUC is also part of a team being led by Savannah River National Laboratory that has been awarded $1.5 million to address irradiation-induced embrittlement and swelling through Machine Learning-informed design of a three-dimensional (3D) structure that will be filled primarily with molten lithium and present a Li plasma facing component (PFC).
SRNL will develop a suitable material and 3D print the geometrically complex structures that will control how much liquid metal is exposed to the fusion reaction without excessive evaporation. Using liquid metal in fusion power plants provides the opportunity to continuously replace the first wall and repair the irradiation damage from the fusion reactions. The project develops novel approaches to keeping the liquid in place, and its success will help validate that the inside surface of a fusion power plant chamber can be made of liquid instead of solid material.
“Lithium provides a self-healing surface, while the 3D structure will help contain and keep the lithium where it’s needed,” Andruczyk said. “The Center for Plasma Material Interactions in NPRE offers a unique set of facilities that SRNL was keen to use, including HIDRA, which is the steady state stellarator that is able to provide the types of plasma exposures to test these kinds of components.”
CPMI and research associate professor Andruczyk, who is leading the Illinois effort, are recognized around the world as one of the leading labs in lithium technology development and understanding the intricate relationship between plasma and materials.
“The work done here will go a long way in solving many of the challenges that 3D printed components may have in future fusion reactor environments,” Andruczyk said.