3D-Printed Tungsten Tiles Face Fusion Plasma Test
North Carolina State University's printed tungsten tiles were installed in a fusion reactor and exposed to plasma in a testing campaign.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Nuclear
Tungsten tiles designed and printed at North Carolina State University were installed in the lower divertor of DIII-D, a fusion research facility, and exposed to plasma during a testing campaign. The tiles are now being removed, imaged, and surface-scanned, with NC State leading the analysis.
Why it matters
Divertor surfaces must withstand extreme heat and plasma exposure, and tiles printed at this scale could make the manufacturing of fusion-ready components more practical. The results will help determine whether additive manufacturing can produce plasma-facing parts for future fusion machines.
The full-scale tiles were exposed to three days of direct plasma during 74 high-confinement H-mode discharges, compared with a largest previously printed NC State part of about 50 millimeters across. Analysis of surface condition after removal has not yet been reported.
The players
North Carolina State University
A public research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, which designed the printed tungsten tiles and will lead their analysis.
DIII-D
A fusion research facility operated by General Atomics for the U.S. Department of Energy, where the tiles were tested in the lower divertor.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that developed the electron-beam additive manufacturing process used to print the tiles.
The details
The tiles were printed with JEOL's JAM-5200EBM electron-beam powder bed fusion system, which melts tungsten powder layer by layer in a vacuum chamber, and were then machined to produce mirror-like plasma-facing surfaces. They were mounted on copper-alloy pedestals and installed in DIII-D's lower divertor in July 2026, where they underwent testing during the Tile Testing Campaign.
Timeline
• 2025: Small printed tungsten buttons were tested at DIII-D's Divertor Materials Evaluation System.
• July 2026: Printed tiles were installed in DIII-D's lower divertor.
• 2026 Tile Testing Campaign: Tiles received three days of plasma exposure and 74 discharges.
Roadmap
The tests extend DIII-D's 2025 Divertor Materials Evaluation System work, which exposed small printed tungsten buttons to heat fluxes near 20 MW/m2, to tiles about 140 × 130 millimeters in size. This moves printed plasma-facing components from laboratory-scale samples toward parts closer to what a fusion device would require.
If printed tungsten components prove durable under plasma exposure, future fusion machines could use additively manufactured parts instead of only conventionally machined ones. Current results do not yet show whether the tiles withstood the testing without damage.
The takeaway
Additive manufacturing is beginning to reach the component sizes fusion machines require, but post-test inspection will determine whether printed tungsten can hold up. Readers should watch for the imaging and surface-scan results from NC State.
Further reading
For related coverage, see Nuclear reporting from North Carolina.
