Reference vanadium alloy V-4Cr-4Ti for fusion application

Vanadium alloys exhibit important advantages as a candidate structural material for fusion first-wall/blanket applications. These advantages include high temperature and high wall load capability, favorable safety and environmental features, resistance to irradiation damage, and alloys of interest are readily fabricable. A substantial data base has been developed on laboratory-scale heats of V-Ti, V-Cr-Ti and V-Ti-Si alloys before and after irradiation. Investigations in recent years have focused primarily on compositions of V-(0-15)Cr-(0-20)Ti-(0-1)Si. Results from these investigations have provided a basis for identifying a V-4Cr-4Ti alloy as the US reference vanadium alloy for further development. Major results obtained on one production-scale heat and three laboratory heats with compositions of V-(4-5)Cr-(4-5)Ti are presented in this paper.