Ceramic Matrix Composites: Nuclear Applications: Fid-Bau Portal

Ceramic Matrix Composites: Nuclear Applications

Sauder, Cédric

Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are considered to improve the performance and safety of nuclear fusion and fission reactors. Carbon‐fiber‐reinforced carbon (C C) composites are the most advanced and have undergone numerous improvements for use in experimental fusion reactors. The main benefit lies in their very high thermal conductivity, which dissipates the intense thermal flux generated by the plasma in a fusion reactor. Their behavior when irradiated nevertheless limits their use to applications with no or very low oxygen environments and where doses of radiation are low (less than several displacements per atom, or dpa). Silicon‐carbide‐reinforced silicon carbide (SiC SiC) composites actually have the greatest potential for nuclear applications. These advantages include high mechanical resistance at high temperature, chemical inertness, stability when irradiated, as well as intrinsic characteristics. It is thought that these materials can be used for numerous applications in all generations of nuclear fission power plants as well as for structural materials in fusion power reactors that may be built in future decades if they are deemed viable. These applications, however, require characteristics that are very difficult to achieve, and thus represent an important challenge for the research teams working on their development. This chapter will provide an overview of planned nuclear applications using CMCs (C C and SiC SiC) including constraints related to each application followed by a discussion of the advances made in the development of these materials, in addition to related concepts.