Alongside the exploitation of the High Flux Reactor in Petten, since 1960 a long term R&D programme on fusion material research was conducted. In this programme material qualification tests of Reduced Acivating Ferritic Material for ITER were performed and the European selection of candidate fusion fuel material for ITER was made. In addition many other fusion materials for various applications in fusion reactors were irradiated under ITER and fusion reactor representative irradiation conditions and subjected to extensive post irradiation research campaigns.

In 2005 decision was made to build ITER in the South of France and the first agreement was made to develop a joint undertaking for European Fusion Energy research and development for ITER which led to the resurrection of Fusion for Energy. This led to major reorganisations of fusion research funding structures of EURATOM and the decision to organize the EU long term fusion research in the European Joint Programme EUROFUSION from 2014 onwards. The Dutch subsidy from the ministry of economic affairs for long term fusion research stopped in 2016.

With the primary focus towards the building of ITER, the extensive network of fusion partnerships and the expertise and quality of NRG irradiations and measurements, resulted in 2012 in a contract research assignment from ITER for the nuclear qualification of first wall panels.

Together with the ITER First Wall team, the Chinese and Russian material suppliers and project partner Forsungszentrum Juelich, the first nuclear material qualification test was conducted. The first wall components were irradiated to ITER representative neutron fluence and temperature. The objective was to investigate the joint of the beryllium clad and the copper alloy heat sink material and to evaluate changes in thermal profiles of the component during High heat flux testing in the JUDITH- 1 facility at FZJ. The following activities are undertaken in each phase of the program:

• Delivery of the sub scale ITER FW panel from the Chinese institute xxx and the Russian institute yyy
• Engineering of irradiation capsule in which the components are loaded in the High Flux Reactor
• Irradiation of ITER FW components in the HFR
• Before and after irradiation High Heat flux testing with ITER representative heat loads using the electron beam in the JUDITH- 1 facility in FZ Juelich
• Nuclear transport of irradiated components to FZ Juelich

The main challenge of the HESTIA irradiation in the HFR is to mimic th­­e similar neutron irradiation conditions as in ITER, within a short period.  This will be used to simulate radiation damage during the life span of the component in ITER in order to predict how long these components will maintain the integrity and functionality.

After irradiation, the irradiated mock-ups are transported to Julich research centre, where they are exposed to extremely high heat flux and intense variable thermal radiation. This can determine whether the irradiated material offers sufficient resistance to extreme heat load in the ITER system.

In the experimental design of the HESTIA irradiation device, special care was undertaken to keep the temperature uniform and constant throughout the full irradiation.

This was done by engineering of heat conduction blocks, surrounding the ITER FW components and with precision manufacturing of these blocks, a constant and uniform temperature of 240 C was kept during irradiation .

The fusion R&D program in general and the ITER first wall qualification project  has generated data predict the behaviour of the first wall components. In addition nuclear competences have been further developed for future irradiation qualification and research  programmes for many other clients and organisations.