White Book on the Complementary Scientific Programme at IFMIF-DONES

Abstract

IFMIF-DONES - a powerful neutron irradiation facility for studies and qualification of materials is planned as part of the European roadmap to fusion-generated electricity. Its main goal will be to study properties of materials under severe irradiation in a neutron field similar to the one in a fusion reactor first wall. It is a key facility to prepare for the construction of the DEMO Power Plant envisaged to follow ITER. At present, as the construction of ITER is well under way, it has been considered to accelerate the design and construction of DEMO, which should start during the 2030 decade. Thus, the decision to start the building of IFMIF-DONES is imminent. IFMIF-DONES must start operation in mid 2020’s in order to provide results on material properties from the first batches of irradiated samples in time to be used for the design of DEMO. Assuming a minimum period of 5 years for the construction process the design and validation activities for IFMIF-DONES must be completed by 2020. Other preparatory activities such as site preparation and licensing must also start before 2020. As part of those activities EUROfusion, the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy, which manages and funds European fusion research activities on behalf of EURATOM, has started the Early Neutron Source work package (WPENS) with the main goal to prepare by 2018 the Engineering Design of IFMIF-DONES. At the same time, Fusion for Energy, the European Union’s Joint Undertaking for the Development of Fusion Energy, which will be responsible for the construction of IFMIF-DONES, has asked member states to express interest in the siting of the facility. Poland is one of the countries, which have declared interest to host IFMIF-DONES. The ELAMAT (European Laboratory for Material Science) consortium was founded in 2014 by the Rzeszów University of Technology and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) as a bottom-up initiative of the science community to prepare the proposal to site IFMIF in the Podkarpackie region of Poland [1]. Its members are the leading universities, research institutes, high technology companies and business environment institutions active in Poland. Consortium participants seek to combine economic and scientific potential of business and research and development institutions for building in Poland an international research infrastructure for advanced materials research. One of the decisions of the Consortium was to establish the ELAMAT Scientific Council with the aim to study possible extension of the objectives of the IFMIF-DONES facility beyond its standard programme of material studies for fusion reactors [2]. The Scientific Council whose members represent the fusion, nuclear physics, medical physics and technology research communities organised two open meetings to discuss the opportunities offered by the new facility. At the workshop “Town Meeting on IFMIF/ELAMAT Complementary Scientific Programme”, which took place in April 2016 [3], it was decided to prepare a collection of science cases for the future facility in the form of a White Book. At the same time, this activity was met with interest and received support from the Early Neutron Source work package (WPENS) of EUROfusion. The possible science cases, discussed in this White Book, require certain modifications of the IFMIF-DONES facility layout (see Fig.1). The considerations and conclusions presented in the White 6 Book are independent of the site of the future facility. The intention of the authors of this report was to demonstrate that many foremost topics and questions of todays science in several active fields of research could be addressed and investigated at the IFMIF-DONES without compromising its main role of a material irradiation facility for the fusion programme. It is hoped that such demonstration will raise interest and bring support for the construction of IFMIF-DONES and that elements of the complementary science programme will be incorporated into the original programme of the facility.