Evaluation of conservative and innovative manufacturing routes for gas cooled Test Blanket Module and Breeding Blanket First Walls

•Using Electrical Discharge Machining in combination with forming is an option to manufacture a U-shaped First Wall without welding.•Additive Manufacturing (e.g. Selective Laser Melting and Metal Powder Application) provides promising options for nuclear fusion applications.•Selective Laser Melting is suitable to manufacture high complex and thin walled segments with internal channel structures.•Metal Powder Application provides cost effective options to build First Wall relevant components. Different manufacturing routes are investigated at the KIT INR for the realization of First Walls (FW) for nuclear fusion components, such as the ITER Test Blanket Module (TBM) and DEMO Breeding Blankets (BB) for the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Breeding concept. One conventional manufacturing route mainly basing of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) and forming was demonstrated successfully. However, the procurement costs are high. Therefore, options also to apply Additive Manufacturing (AM) as alternative were investigated. This paper compares the HCPB reference concept for FW fabrication to innovative concepts basing on AM.