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Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels

David Bowden Orcid Logo, Benjamin Evans Orcid Logo, Jack Haley, Jim Johnson, Alexander Carruthers, Stephen Jones, Dane Hardwicke, Talal Abdullah, Shahin Mehraban, Nicholas Lavery Orcid Logo, Paul Sukpe Orcid Logo, Richard Birley Orcid Logo, Abdollah Bahador, Alan Scholes, Peter Barnard Orcid Logo

Journal of Nuclear Engineering, Volume: 7, Issue: 1, Start page: 1

Swansea University Authors: Stephen Jones, Dane Hardwicke, Talal Abdullah, Shahin Mehraban, Nicholas Lavery Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/jne7010001

Abstract

Future fusion power plants require structural materials that can withstand extreme operating conditions, including high coolant outlet temperatures, mechanical loading, and radiation damage. Reduced-activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels are a primary candidate as a structural material for su...

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Published in: Journal of Nuclear Engineering
ISSN: 2673-4362
Published: MDPI AG 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71221
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spelling 2026-01-09T09:47:22.1199992 v2 71221 2026-01-09 Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels 70e28e2a5b26a13e91354e68fd78f394 Stephen Jones Stephen Jones true false 1b94cb958b11587a86488595d42446b7 Dane Hardwicke Dane Hardwicke true false dbecbe6a4a0d98dad2caeda9e617b66b Talal Abdullah Talal Abdullah true false c7e4a4152b2cf403da129be7d1c2904d Shahin Mehraban Shahin Mehraban true false 9f102ff59824fd4f7ce3d40144304395 0000-0003-0953-5936 Nicholas Lavery Nicholas Lavery true false 2026-01-09 ACEM Future fusion power plants require structural materials that can withstand extreme operating conditions, including high coolant outlet temperatures, mechanical loading, and radiation damage. Reduced-activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels are a primary candidate as a structural material for such applications. This study demonstrates the successful production of a 5.5-tonne RAFM billet via electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, enabling scalable, cost-effective manufacturing. The resulting UK-RAFM alloy offers superior tensile strength and creep lifetime performance compared to Eurofer97. This is attributed to alterations in the initial forging process during manufacture. Modified thermomechanical treatments (TMTs) were subsequently applied to the UK-RAFM, which are shown to enhance the tensile strength further, particularly at 650 °C. Building on this, an Advanced RAFM (ARAFM) steel was designed to exploit the benefits of optimised chemistry to encourage metal carbonitride (MX) precipitate evolution alongside bespoke TMTs. Challenges around ensuring suitable processing windows in these steels, to avoid the over-coarsening of MX precipitates or the formation of deleterious delta-ferrite, are discussed. A subsequent 5.5-tonne ARAFM billet has since been produced using EAF facilities, with performance to be reported separately. This work highlights the synergy between alloy design, process optimisation, and industrial scalability, paving the way for a new generation of low-cost, high-volume, fusion-grade steels. Journal Article Journal of Nuclear Engineering 7 1 1 MDPI AG 2673-4362 fusion; steel; creep; tensile; toughness; industrialisation; processing 19 12 2025 2025-12-19 10.3390/jne7010001 COLLEGE NANME Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering COLLEGE CODE ACEM Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This work has been funded by the NEUtron iRradiatiOn of advaNced stEels (NEURONE) programme via Fusion Futures. As announced by the UK Government in October 2023, Fusion Futures aims to provide holistic support for the development of the fusion sector. In addition, part-funding for this work has been provided by the EPSRC Energy Programme, grant number EP/W006839/1. The research used UKAEA’s Materials Research Facility, which has been funded by and is part of the UK’s National Nuclear User Facility and Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials. The Lab-scale ARAFM used in this study was developed with support from the Research Wales Innovation Fund Collaboration Booster, PROJECT #FF2. 2026-01-09T09:47:22.1199992 2026-01-09T09:33:51.2301807 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering David Bowden 0000-0003-2895-4044 1 Benjamin Evans 0000-0002-9375-5044 2 Jack Haley 3 Jim Johnson 4 Alexander Carruthers 5 Stephen Jones 6 Dane Hardwicke 7 Talal Abdullah 8 Shahin Mehraban 9 Nicholas Lavery 0000-0003-0953-5936 10 Paul Sukpe 0000-0001-9168-9672 11 Richard Birley 0009-0002-3329-6592 12 Abdollah Bahador 13 Alan Scholes 14 Peter Barnard 0009-0009-0487-5940 15 71221__35940__eac27fb3d39447dcbde156611b8b4574.pdf jne-07-00001.pdf 2026-01-09T09:33:51.2086449 Output 23294639 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
spellingShingle Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
Stephen Jones
Dane Hardwicke
Talal Abdullah
Shahin Mehraban
Nicholas Lavery
title_short Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
title_full Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
title_fullStr Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
title_full_unstemmed Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
title_sort Engineering the Next Generation of Industrially Scalable Fusion-Grade Steels
author_id_str_mv 70e28e2a5b26a13e91354e68fd78f394
1b94cb958b11587a86488595d42446b7
dbecbe6a4a0d98dad2caeda9e617b66b
c7e4a4152b2cf403da129be7d1c2904d
9f102ff59824fd4f7ce3d40144304395
author_id_fullname_str_mv 70e28e2a5b26a13e91354e68fd78f394_***_Stephen Jones
1b94cb958b11587a86488595d42446b7_***_Dane Hardwicke
dbecbe6a4a0d98dad2caeda9e617b66b_***_Talal Abdullah
c7e4a4152b2cf403da129be7d1c2904d_***_Shahin Mehraban
9f102ff59824fd4f7ce3d40144304395_***_Nicholas Lavery
author Stephen Jones
Dane Hardwicke
Talal Abdullah
Shahin Mehraban
Nicholas Lavery
author2 David Bowden
Benjamin Evans
Jack Haley
Jim Johnson
Alexander Carruthers
Stephen Jones
Dane Hardwicke
Talal Abdullah
Shahin Mehraban
Nicholas Lavery
Paul Sukpe
Richard Birley
Abdollah Bahador
Alan Scholes
Peter Barnard
format Journal article
container_title Journal of Nuclear Engineering
container_volume 7
container_issue 1
container_start_page 1
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2673-4362
doi_str_mv 10.3390/jne7010001
publisher MDPI AG
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Future fusion power plants require structural materials that can withstand extreme operating conditions, including high coolant outlet temperatures, mechanical loading, and radiation damage. Reduced-activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels are a primary candidate as a structural material for such applications. This study demonstrates the successful production of a 5.5-tonne RAFM billet via electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, enabling scalable, cost-effective manufacturing. The resulting UK-RAFM alloy offers superior tensile strength and creep lifetime performance compared to Eurofer97. This is attributed to alterations in the initial forging process during manufacture. Modified thermomechanical treatments (TMTs) were subsequently applied to the UK-RAFM, which are shown to enhance the tensile strength further, particularly at 650 °C. Building on this, an Advanced RAFM (ARAFM) steel was designed to exploit the benefits of optimised chemistry to encourage metal carbonitride (MX) precipitate evolution alongside bespoke TMTs. Challenges around ensuring suitable processing windows in these steels, to avoid the over-coarsening of MX precipitates or the formation of deleterious delta-ferrite, are discussed. A subsequent 5.5-tonne ARAFM billet has since been produced using EAF facilities, with performance to be reported separately. This work highlights the synergy between alloy design, process optimisation, and industrial scalability, paving the way for a new generation of low-cost, high-volume, fusion-grade steels.
published_date 2025-12-19T05:34:45Z
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score 11.096068

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