Summary
Normally, people use low-activation steel (see Low-activation materials) coated with copper. But the steel has poor thermal conductivity, and plating copper is hard. Some new copper alloys (GRCOP)are promising but they contain 4% Nb, which would make it “high-level waste”. So Gregory Wallace and Mike Short are collaborating on a high-throughput alloy synthesis and testing system, supported by molecular dynamics simulations. (Note: Mike Short is also applying this technique to other applications with Kevin Woller). This is funded by the Department of Energy.
This is adjacent to work by Andrew Seltzman (see 2023-05-15 A-STAR (Singapore Research Entity)).
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See also
Some similarities to the approach taken for High-entropy materials for plasma-facing components by Osman El Atwani et al. at Los Alamos National Laboratory