The Thermal Consequences to the First Wall of a Deuterium-Tritium-Fueled Tokamak due to a Major Plasma Disruption

Magnetic confinement fusion programs are now entering the design phase for devices that will demonstrate the physics and engineering necessary for fusion reactors. One design area of significance that is receiving increased consideration is that of determining the characterization and potential consequences of plasma disruptions. The thermal energy and the magnetic energy stored in an engineering test facility type plasma will each be ∼200 MJ. A thermal energy of 200 MJ will result in a very high heat flux if deposited on a tokamak wall in a short time. The consequences of such depositions as a function of disruption time, and of the spatial distribution of the plasma as it strikes the wall, are analyzed in this paper.