  The European HiPER project aims to demonstrate commercial viability of
inertial fusion energy within the following two decades. This goal requires an
extensive Research & Development program on materials for different
applications (e.g., first wall, structural components and final optics). In
this paper we will discuss our activities in the framework of HiPER to develop
materials studies for the different areas of interest. The chamber first wall
will have to withstand explosions of at least 100 MJ at a repetition rate of
5-10 Hz. If direct drive targets are used, a dry wall chamber operated in
vacuum is preferable. In this situation the major threat for the wall stems
from ions. For reasonably low chamber radius (5-10 m) new materials based on W
and C are being investigated, e.g., engineered surfaces and nanostructured
materials. Structural materials will be subject to high fluxes of neutrons
leading to deleterious effects, such as, swelling. Low activation advanced
steels as well as new nanostructured materials are being investigated. The
final optics lenses will not survive the extreme ion irradiation pulses
originated in the explosions. Therefore, mitigation strategies are being
investigated. In addition, efforts are being carried out in understanding
optimized conditions to minimize the loss of optical properties by neutron and
gamma irradiation.
