Metallurgical Bonding Development of V-4Cr-4Ti Alloy for the DIII-D Radiative Divertor Program

General Atomics (GA), in conjunction with the Department of Energy`s (DOE) DIII-D Program, is carrying out a plan to utilize a vanadium alloy in the DIII-D tokamak as part of the DIII-D Radiative Divertor (RD) upgrade. The V-4Cr-4Ti alloy has been selected in the U.S. as the leading candidate vanadium alloy for fusion applications. This alloy will be used for the divertor fabrication. Manufacturing development with the V-4Cr-4Ti alloy is a focus of the DIII-D RD Program. The RD structure, part of which will be fabricated from V-4Cr-4Ti alloy, will require many product forms and types of metal/metal bonded joints. Metallurgical bonding methods development on this vanadium alloy is therefore a key area of study by GA. Several solid state (non-fusion weld) and fusion weld joining methods are being investigated. To date, GA has been successful in producing ductile, high strength, vacuum leak tight joints by all of the methods under investigation. The solid state joining was accomplished in air, i.e., without the need for a vacuum or inert gas environment to prevent interstitial impurity contamination of the V-4Cr-4Ti alloy