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Worldwide research and development has been performed on solid breeder materials as a tritium source for future fusion power reactors. These ceramic materials will be used in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) to check their performance and screen their applicability for use in fusion blankets. While all members of the ITER project are engaged in the development of solid breeder blanket concepts, five are actively involved in the fabrication of tritium breeding ceramics for the different test blanket modules to be tested in ITER. All solid breeder concepts proposed for ITER are based on the use of ceramics in the form of pebble beds with pebble diameters of about 1 mm or smaller. Although alternative materials are still under investigation, the main candidates for tritium breeding ceramics are lithium metatitanate and lithium orthosilicate. Recent developments and preparatory work for ITER are presented.

Time-intensive and cost-consuming manufacturing of new ceramic components may be improved significantly by the use of rapid prototyping processes especially in the development of miniaturized or micropatterned components. Their molding is generally very expensive and finishing is difficult to the point of impossibility. Most known generative ceramic molding processes do not provide a sufficient resolution for the fabrication of microstructured components. In contrast to this, a rapid prototyping process chain that combines micro-stereolithography and low-pressure injection molding, for example, allows the rapid manufacturing of ceramic microcomponents from functional models to preliminary or small-lot series, microcomponents from functional models to preliminary or small-lot series.