PNNL

Abstract

In response to the needs of a rapidly growing private fusion industry, the U.S. fusion materials coordinating committee (US-FMCC) and the broader U.S. fusion materials research community undertook an extensive effort to create a detailed roadmap for fusion materials development. The U.S. Fusion Materials Community Roadmap (US-FMCR) describes the steps needed to advance the technical maturity of leading candidates for plasma-facing materials and structural materials for fusion power plants from laboratory-scale experiments to a point of sufficient technological readiness for industrial adoption and implementation. However, researchers face significant resource constraints as well as very aggressive pilot plant development timelines. Thus, the research strategies detailed in the US-FMCR require further assessment to downselect the specific tasks that must be prioritized within the next two to three years, in order to make the most efficient use of funding, human resources, and experimental facilities. In this paper, the US-FMCC provides an overview of the roadmap and its development process. We also present the subset of research objectives from the US-FMCR that the US-FMCC identified as the most urgent research priorities for the U.S. fusion materials research community.