Sintered nanostructured alloys for advanced fusion energy applications

We describe our recent efforts demonstrating direct current sintering parameters appropriate to mimic near-identical microstructure to optimize reduced activation ferritic martensitic “castable nanostructured alloy”. The fabrication process is presented, and through a combination of computational thermodynamics, multimodal characterization, and mechanical testing we confirm that sintering may be used to produce relevant castable nanostructured alloy (CNA). Our success in demonstrating the applicability of sintering to CNA fabrication opens the opportunity to fabricate functionally graded first wall tile structures or other complicated structures with demanding high-temperature performance, as example fusion high heat flux components.