Fusion Engineering and Design 86 (2011) 2538–2540 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Fusion Engineering and Design journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fusengdes The materials production and processing facility at the Spanish National Centre for fusion technologies (TechnoFusión) A. Mu ˜ noz a,∗ , M.A. Monge a , R. Pareja a , M.T. Hernández b , D. Jimenez-Rey c , R. Román b , M. González b , I. García-Cortés b , M. Perlado d , A. Ibarra b a Departamento de Física, UC3M, Avda de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain b LNF-CIEMAT, Avda, Complutense, 22, 28040 Madrid, Spain c CMAM, UAM, C/Faraday 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain d IFN, ETSII, UPM, C/José Gutierrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain article info Article history: Available online 12 June 2011 Keywords: Fusion materials Materials production technology Materials facility abstract In response to the urgent request from the EU Fusion Program, a new facility (TechnoFusión) for research and development of fusion materials has been planned with support from the Regional Government of Madrid and the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain. TechnoFusión, the National Centre for Fusion Technologies, aims screening different technologies relevant for ITER and DEMO environments while promoting the contribution of international companies and research groups into the Fusion Programme. For this purpose, the centre will be provided with a large number of unique facilities for the manufacture, testing (a triple-beam multi-ion irradiation, a plasma–wall interaction device, a remote handling for under ionizing radiation testing) and analysis of critical fusion materials. Particularly, the objectives, semi- industrial scale capabilities and present status of the TechnoFusión Materials Production and Processing (MPP) facility are presented. Previous studies revealed that the MPP facility will be a very promising infrastructure for the development of new materials and prototypes demanded by the fusion technology and therefore some of them will be here briefly summarized. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the future fusion reactors, the interaction of the plasma and radiation with plasma facing materials (PFMs) and other compo- nent material of the reactor vessel is one of the most serious issues because these materials will be subjected to very high fluxes of energetic particles and heat. The key materials in a fusion reac- tor are that used in the structure of the plasma facing wall (Be, W alloys, C-based materials). PFMs and others next to the plasma have to operate under extreme conditions so that the plasma attains the optimal operating parameters to make the fusion reactors prof- itable devices for energy production. Perhaps, this is the more urgent issue to be resolved in order to make nuclear fusion an economical and safe energy resource. Currently, with some particular exceptions (i.e. Eurofer or F8H2 steels), materials with properties satisfying the design conditions required in fusion reactors are only produced on a laboratory scale. Under such circumstances, the research results obtained from materials produced in different laboratories usually yield discrep- ancies due to differences in composition, fabrication techniques ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 916249413. E-mail addresses: rpp@fis.uc3m.es, amunoz@fis.uc3m.es (A. Mu ˜ noz). and processing conditions as well as to a shortage of material, which difficults the undertaking of a rigorous characterization. The lack of research laboratories with the capability to manufacture a quantity of material in a single batch sufficient for full characterization is evident. The European Union (EU) Fusion Program [1] has pointed out the urgent need of developing this capability in the European laboratories. Accordingly, the Material Production and Processing (MPP) facility at the Spanish National Centre for Fusion Technolo- gies (TechnoFusión) is being designed for contributing to the EU Program on Fusion Materials. This paper describes this facility, its main objectives in the framework of the EU Program on fusion materials, its present status, the laboratories and techniques required and some recent results in the development of W-alloys and nano-structured ferritic oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels. 2. The TechnoFusión MPP facility 2.1. Objectives Following the guidelines from the EU Program on Fusion Mate- rials, the MPP facility at TechnoFusión is planned to give priority to the research and development of the following materials: 0920-3796/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2011.04.072