Copper alloy-stainless steel bonds and recent developments for TORE SUPRA

High strength high conductivity copper alloys such as CuCrZr are used in Tore Supra as structural heat sink material for high heat flux plasma facing components. Although friction welded pipes on these components have shown a satisfactory in-service reliability, it came out that recently produced CuCrZr-stainless steel bonds showed very poor results in ductility. This led to a more detailed investigation of friction weldments. Finally, a more ductile joint has been developed with « Plansee AG » on the basis of electron beam welded nickel adapters inserted between the two materials. Characterisation of such bonds is reported.