Phased Array Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Evaluation of ITER Plasma Facing Components

Abstract

The walls of ITER are to be lined with thousands of plasma facing components (PFCs) consisting of a CuCrZr heatsink joined to Be armor tiles on the reactor side and to a stainless steel 316LN strongback on the opposite side. Imperfections in the joints of just one in-service PFC have potentially disastrous consequences to reactor operation; it is therefore imperative to assure quality by nondestructively evaluating the integrity of PFC joints during manufacture. Phased array ultrasound is an excellent candidate for this purpose. A background in phased array ultrasonics is presented along with recent experimental results on mockups.