Divertor erosion at ASDEX Upgrade during helium plasma operations

Tomi Vuoriheimo*, Antti Hakola, Jari Likonen, Karl Krieger, Martin Balden, Iva Bogdanović Radović, Georgios Provatas, Zdravko Siketić, Karla Ivanković Nizić, Marcin Rasinski, Sebastijan Brezinsek, ASDEX Upgrade Team,

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The effect of helium plasma operation on the erosion of plasma-facing components at the low-field side divertor of ASDEX Upgrade was investigated during the 2022 helium experimental campaign. A set of tungsten-covered graphite samples with small platinum marker spots was exposed to both L-mode and H-mode plasma discharges. The highest net erosion of over 1.1 nm/s was observed around the H-mode strike point similar to the case in deuterium plasma. Significant helium inventories of about 6 × 1016 He/cm2 were measured in the scrape-off layer region of the divertor. Impurity deposition including boron and deuterium showed a distinct peak up to 2.4 × 1017 B/cm2 and 1.0 × 1016 D/cm2 between the strike points, and significant boron inventories up to 5.9 × 1016 B/cm2 were also measured on the scrape-off layer side of the H-mode strike point. Platinum re-deposition was not detected between the marker spots, suggesting that it occurs only very locally within the markers. Overall erosion was, as expected, higher than in deuterium discharges, and it also remained comparatively high towards the scrape-off layer, unlike with deuterium.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101766
JournalNuclear Materials and Energy
Volume41
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • ASDEX Upgrade
  • Erosion
  • Helium plasma
  • Marker samples
  • Material migration

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