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Erosion of Plasma-Facing Components Under Simulated Disruption-Like Conditions Using an Electrothermal Plasma Gun

M.A. Bourham, J.G. Gilligan

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 26 / Number 3P2 / November 1994 / Pages 517-521

Fusion Material and Plasma-Facing Component / Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40209

The NCSU electrothermal plasma gun, SIRENS, has been used to evaluate the erosion behavior of plasma-facing components under conditions simulating plasma disruption in tokamaks. The device is capable of producing conditions with heat fluence up to 10 MJ/m2 over 0.1 and 0.25 ms pulse duration. In future large tokamaks, plasma-facing components are expected to receive heat fluxes during a plasma disruption, which may exceed 100 GW/m2 over 0.01–5 ms. The vapor, which is developed at the ablating surface, absorbs a fraction of the incoming plasma energy. Candidate plasma-facing materials have been exposed to heat fluxes in the SIRENS facility (primarily from a blackbody spectrum photons), up to 100 GW/m2 over 0.1–0.25 ms. The vapor shielding effect has been demonstrated and analyzed for the divertor candidate materials.