STEP - Divertor Heat Exchanger AM PIN

Future nuclear fusion reactors will be required to manage high heat fluxes (up to 20MW/m2) on in-vessel components, such as the divertor targets in the plasma exhaust system. This will require heat exchangers with significant heat handling capabilities. This has led the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), specifically STEP to explore novel heat exchanger designs that use additively manufactured lattices as cooling structures.

As a result, UKAEA is now looking to engage with companies through this PIN which have capability in additively manufacturing lattice structures to a high quality, using nuclear fusion relevant materials (e.g., copper, copper chromium zirconium, tungsten, tantalum, and alloys of these materials).

UKAEA would like to quantify the heat transfer and flow/pressure drop characteristics of such lattice structures, to assess their feasibility for use in novel heat exchanger designs. This may be done through use in small scale, high heat flux testing, or through exploration and validation of previous test results/analytical models.

If capabilities mentioned above are within your expertise, we would like to engage with you. Please contact with Rukhsar Samnani (rukhsar.samnani@ukaea.uk). Additional information: This is a pre-market engagement exercise.