FuseNet has developed educational materials for secondary schools. The goal of these materials is to provide secondary school teachers with all the tools required to teach nuclear fusion in fun and engaging lessons. 

The module consists of:

• A student reader
• Lecture slides
• Teacher's manual

Module 4: Fusion materials

This module aims to introduce the challenges behind the choice of materials to build a nuclear fusion reactor. Material engineering plays a primary role in the process of making fusion a reality. The focus of this module is on two topics that are crucial for a working reactor: 1) heat exhaust and plasma-facing materials, 2) neutron irradiation and materials for the blanket.

The technological challenge behind these topics consists in dealing with the extreme conditions encountered inside a tokamak. This leads to questions such as: “What are these extreme conditions?”, “Which materials can we use?”, and “Which solutions are engineers and researchers currently working on?”.

After this module, you will have a better picture in mind of the parts and components of a nuclear fusion reactor; you will have an intuitive understanding of the material issues. Plus, you will know which materials we need to make fusion a reality. In sum, you will have gained insight into how we are trying to build a box ‘containing a star on Earth’.

The material will be maintained and curated by FuseNet. Want to give us feedback on module 4? Please send an e-mail to: feo@fusenet.eu.