New Research Consortium Tests Materials for Fusion Power Plants

The Garching Research Campus will be the site for developing materials for future fusion power plants: “From the atom to the plasma-facing wall: Centre of expertise for the optimisation of fusion materials”.

Seven people are standing behind a blue sign bearing the inscription ‘Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II)’. The group is looking at the camera. In the background, the glass façade of a building can be seen, along with trees and other buildings on the site. — The principal investigators of the FUMA project (from left) at the kick-off meeting: Dr Thomas Schwarz-Selinger (IPP), Dr Michael Hofmann (FRM II), Prof. Dr Jeong-Ha You (IPP), Dr Ralph Gilles (FRM II), Prof. Dr Christoph Hugenschmidt (FRM II), Prof. Dr Rudolf Neu (IPP), Dr Tobias Neuwirth (FRM II).

Laura Richter, FRM II/TUM

The principal investigators of the FUMA project (from left) at the kick-off meeting: Dr Thomas Schwarz-Selinger (IPP), Dr Michael Hofmann (FRM II), Prof. Dr Jeong-Ha You (IPP), Dr Ralph Gilles (FRM II), Prof. Dr Christoph Hugenschmidt (FRM II), Prof. Dr Rudolf Neu (IPP), Dr Tobias Neuwirth (FRM II).

Laura Richter, FRM II/TUM

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) is funding the three-year “FUMA” project with approximately 4.8 million euros as part of its High-Tech Agenda for Germany. The project partners are the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP).

Inside a fusion reactor, extreme temperatures, mechanical stresses, and intense particle irradiation simultaneously act on the materials. This creates defects and pores and can lead to material failure. To investigate such effects, the project involves one positron and three neutron research groups from FRM II, as well as two IPP research groups from the Scientific Division “Plasma-Material Interaction and Components”, whose methodologies complement one another.

From IPP, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Neu and Prof. Dr. Jeong-Ha You (both from the Plasma Component Interaction group) as well as Dr. Thomas Schwarz-Selinger (from the Ion Beam Analysis and Modification group) are contributing to the project.