Cold Spray Tantalum Coating Boosts Fusion Reactor Performance

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor. The recent advance could enable more efficient compact fusion reactors that are easier to repair and maintain. The advance, detailed in a paper published recently in the journal Physica Scripta. Mykola Ialovega, a postdoctoral researcher in nuclear engineering and engineering physics at UW-Madison and lead author on the paper explored the situation with, “The fusion…