Characterization and qualification of advanced insulators for fusion magnets

Intensive research over the past decades demonstrated that the mechanical material performance of epoxy based glass fiber reinforced plastics, which are normally used by industry as insulating materials in magnet technology, degrades dramatically upon irradiation to fast neutron fluences above 1 × 1022 m−2 (E > 0.1 MeV), which have to be expected in large fusion devices like ITER. This triggered an insulation development program based on cyanate ester (CE) and blends of CE and epoxies, which are not affected up to twice this fluence level, and therefore appropriate for large fusion magnets like the ITER TF coils. Together with several suppliers resin mixtures with very low viscosity over many hours were developed, which renders them suitable for the impregnation of very large volumes. This paper reports on a qualification program carried out during the past few years to characterize suitable materials, i.e. various boron-free R-glass fiber reinforcements interleaved with polyimide foils embedded in CE/epoxy blends containing 40% of CE, a repair resin, a conductor insulation, and various polyimide/glass fiber bonded tapes. The mechanical properties were assessed at 77 K in tension and in the interlaminar shear mode under static and dynamic load conditions prior to and after reactor irradiation at ∼340 K to neutron fluences of up to 2 × 1022 m−2 (E > 0.1 MeV), i.e. twice the ITER design fluence. The results confirmed that a sustainable solution has become available for this critical magnet component of ITER. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.