First-wall, blanket, and shield engineering test program for magnetically confined fusion power reactors

The key engineering areas identified for early study relate to FW/B/S system thermal-hydraulics, thermomechnics, nucleonics, electromagnetics, assembly, maintenance, and repair. Programmatic guidance derived frm planning exercises involving over thirty organizations (laboratories, industries, and universities) has indicated (1) that meaningful near term engineering testing should be feasible within the bounds of a modest funding base, (2) that there are existing facilities and expertise which can be profitably utilized in this testing, and (3) that near term efforts should focus on the measurement of engineering data and the verification/calibration of predictive methods for anticipated normal operational and transient FW/B/S conditions. The remainder of this paper discusses in more detail the planning strategies, proposed approach to near term testing, and longer range needs for integrated FW/B/S test facilities.