| The Situation A tremendous effort is being done worldwide to further develop nuclear fusion technology. Today's challenge is to find new or improved plasma-facing materials for first wall protection of the fusion containment. Due to their unique physical properties, tungsten (W) and boron-carbide (B4C) are candidate materials for lining large areas of a next generation Tokamak: • Tungsten exhibits favorable thermomechanical properties, such as high thermal conductivity evenb at very high temperatures with relatively high mechanical strength. Further, tungsten is a high-Z material, has the highest melting point and the lowest vapor pressure of all metals. • Boron-carbide is being intensively studied as an alternative low-Z protection of first wall parts. A major disadvantage of both materials is the great difficulty in processing these brittle materials into a first wall lining. |