Cellular Foams: a Potential Innovative Solid Breeder Material for Fusion Applications

Ceramic foam and cellular materials are being used in a wide variety of industries and are finding ever growing number of applications. Over the past decade advances in manufacturing of cellular materials have resulted in ceramics with highly uniform interconnected porosities ranging in size from a few m to several mm. These relatively new ceramic foam materials have a unique set of thermo-mechanical properties, such as excellent thermal shock resistance and high surface to volume ratios. Based on new advances in processing ceramic foams, we suggest the development of ceramic foams or cellular ceramics for solid breeders in fusion reactor blankets. A cellular breeder material has a number of thermo-mechanical advantages over pebble beds, which can enhance blanket performance, improve operational stability, and reduce overall blanket costs.