Manufacture of first wall mock-ups with calibrated defects for fabrication control methods: Development of UT detectable defects

Abstract A Research and Development program for the ITER Blanket-First Wall has been implemented in Europe to provide input data for the manufacture of the full-scale production components. In this frame, FW mock-ups have been fabricated according to ITER FW design requirements. In order to define acceptance criteria for non-destructive examination (NDE) for the series production, FW mock-ups (FWMU) representative of ITER FW are manufactured with calibrated defects to be validated by heat flux tests to assess the critical defect dimensions able to degrade fatigue performance and lifetime, when located at Be/CuCrZr joint corners and beryllium tile edges, and at the CuCrZr/CuCrZr and CuCrZr/316L SS joints. In order to create the defects of given dimensions, two techniques were studied: alumina and zirconia coating using a PVD technique in one hand; and on the another hand alumina and quartz thicker inserts. The paper describes the different approaches used to manufacture test samples with calibrated defects, before applying on FW mock-ups, and related non-destructive examination (NDE) by ultrasonic examination (UT). High heat flux (HHF) testing is not part of this work.