Skip to content
Try: plasma ITER tokamak
↑↓ to navigate Enter to select Esc to close

Reactor Engineering

This section explains the key components of fusion reactors and their engineering challenges.

Main Components

Section titled “Main Components”

A fusion reactor consists of the following major components:

  • Blanket: Responsible for breeding tritium fuel and recovering thermal energy generated by fusion reactions
  • Divertor: Exhausts impurities and helium ash from the plasma to maintain plasma purity
  • Vacuum Vessel: Provides an ultra-high vacuum environment to confine the plasma and serves as the first barrier for radiation shielding
  • Superconducting Coils: Generate powerful magnetic fields to confine the plasma
  • Cryostat: A thermally insulated vessel that maintains the superconducting coils at cryogenic temperatures

Technical Challenges

Section titled “Technical Challenges”

Key technical challenges in reactor engineering:

  • High heat flux handling: The divertor must withstand heat fluxes of up to 10-20 MW/m²
  • Neutron irradiation damage: High-energy 14.1 MeV neutrons degrade materials
  • Tritium self-sufficiency: Producing tritium within the reactor without external fuel supply
  • Remote maintenance: Equipment replacement and maintenance technology in high-radiation environments

Detailed Pages

Section titled “Detailed Pages”
Section titled “Related Topics”