An overview of the welding technologies of CLAM steels for fusion application

Long-term corrosion behavior of martensitic steel welds in static molten Pb–17Li alloy at 550°C

“…The welding thermal cycle produces a range of microstructures within the weld zone and also gives rise to significant and complex residual stress distributions. Variations in microstructure and residual stress both adversely influence corrosion resistance [15,16]. While significant research has been conducted on the corrosion behavior of the unaffected base metals, little attention has been paid to the corrosion resistance of the weld zone.…”

Uniaxial diffusion bonding of CLAM/CLAM steels: Microstructure and mechanical performance

“…The content of W in CLAM steel is lower than that in F82H steel and higher than that in EUROFER 97 steel, in order to retard the precipitation of the Laves phase and maintain good strength. The content of Ta in CLAM steel is much higher than that in other RAFM steels, which is beneficial to the refinement of austenite grains [2].…”

“…Fission and fusion reactions are the two types of nuclear energy. Yet the energy released by the fusion is three to four times greater than the energy released by the fission, and the deuterium fuel extracted from water for fusion reactions is universally available and essentially inexhaustible [2]. These incentives have been driving the worldwide fusion research since its inception, like the ITER project that will provide the basis for the design of the first demonstration fusion power station [3].…”

“…Moreover, a variety of welding processes have been investigated for joining CLAM steels, including hot isostatic pressure (HIP) diffusion welding, gas tungsten arc welding (TIG), plasma arc welding (PAW) and laser beam welding (LBW) [2]. Traditional fusion welding usually involves the microstructure gradients in the heat affected zones of welds, and the microstructural regions include coarse grain region, fine grain region, intercritical region, and over tempered region [10].…”

Measurement and analysis of SHCCT diagram for CLAM steel

“…China Low Activation Martensitic (CLAM) steel has appropriate high-temperature properties, such as high strength, high corrosion resistance and low activation performance, required for fusion reactor applications [1,2] and is regarded as the primary candidate for structural materials of the Chinese Test Blanket Module (TBM) [3,4]. The TBM materials must perform within hostile environments such as high temperature, heavy neutron irradiation and contact with liquid LiPb alloy [5,6].…”