Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks

Yann Corre; M. H. Aumeunier; J. Bucalossi; M. Diez; A. Durif; A. Ekedahl; N. Fedorczak; M. Firdaouss; E. Gauthier; J. Gerardin; J. Gunn; E. Joffrin; A. Huart; P. Maget; M. Missirlian; C. Reux; M. Richou; H. Roche; Q. Tichit; E. Tsitrone; J. Gaspar; K. Krieger; S. Ratynskaia; K. Paschalidis; T. Rizzi; P. Tolias; R. Dejarnac; A. Podolnik; Antti Hakola; C. Martin; R. A. Pitts; M. Wirtz; B. Esposito; M. Regine; C. Monti; EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team; WEST Team; ASDEX Upgrade Team; Aaro Jaervinen; Juuso Karhunen; Anu Kirjasuo; Jari Likonen; Antti Salmi; Antti Snicker; Tuomas Tala; et al.

doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13

Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks

Yann Corre^*
, M. H. Aumeunier
, J. Bucalossi
, M. Diez
, A. Durif
, A. Ekedahl
, N. Fedorczak
, M. Firdaouss
, E. Gauthier
, J. Gerardin
, J. Gunn
, E. Joffrin
, A. Huart
, P. Maget
, M. Missirlian
, C. Reux
, M. Richou
, H. Roche
, Q. Tichit
, E. Tsitrone

J. Gaspar, K. Krieger, S. Ratynskaia, K. Paschalidis, T. Rizzi, P. Tolias, R. Dejarnac, A. Podolnik, Antti Hakola, C. Martin, R. A. Pitts, M. Wirtz, B. Esposito, M. Regine, C. Monti, EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team, WEST Team, ASDEX Upgrade Team, Aaro Jaervinen, Juuso Karhunen, Anu Kirjasuo, Jari Likonen, Antti Salmi, Antti Snicker, Tuomas Tala, et al.

^*Corresponding author for this work

BA4511 Fusion energy

Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA)
French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP)
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Czech Academy of Sciences
Aix-Marseille Université
ITER Organization
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (FZJ)
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Next step fusion devices will face unprecedented heat loads and particle fluence with thousands of hours of plasma exposure on plasma-facing components (PFCs) cumulated over the entire lifetime of the device. These components must guarantee an acceptable lifetime, reliable heat exhaust capabilities (10–15 MW m⁻² power fluxes in steady state) and a high level of resilience after multiple thermal stresses generated by combined steady-state heat loads and transient events, such as edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions. An extensive tungsten (W) PFC testing work-programme has been conducted in the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady State Tokamak) and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamaks, taking advantage of key capabilities and strengths of the two machines. WEST is a superconducting tokamak with long pulse duration capabilities currently equipped with an ITER-grade actively cooled divertor, including shaped monoblocks with a 0.5 mm height toroidal bevel as foreseen for ITER, while AUG allows the exposure of dedicated tile-sized samples (with different geometries, gap sizes, slopes and materials) in ELMy H-mode discharges using its divertor manipulator DIM-II system. The first part of the paper reports on the 4 year long operation of the ITER-grade PFCs in WEST since the commissioning of the divertor in 2022. The second part of the paper presents dedicated experiments performed in AUG and WEST in order to study W failure modes, W melting across toroidal gaps (during sustained or transient melting) and the impact of the runaway electrons on W material. The results reported here provide new information on the W material response (e.g. heating, cracking or melting) of direct relevance to ITER.

Original language	English
Article number	076039
Journal	Nuclear Fusion
Volume	66
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13
Publication status	Published - 2026
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium, funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Programme (Grant Agreement No. 101052200—EUROfusion). The work of R. Dejarnac and A. Podolnik was partially supported by MEYS Project Number 9D22001.

Keywords

heat flux calculation
particle fluence
plasma facing component
runaway impact
tungsten cracking
tungsten melting

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10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Corre, Y., Aumeunier, M. H., Bucalossi, J., Diez, M., Durif, A., Ekedahl, A., Fedorczak, N., Firdaouss, M., Gauthier, E., Gerardin, J., Gunn, J., Joffrin, E., Huart, A., Maget, P., Missirlian, M., Reux, C., Richou, M., Roche, H., Tichit, Q., ... et al. (2026). Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks. Nuclear Fusion, 66(7), Article 076039. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13

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title = "Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks",

abstract = "Next step fusion devices will face unprecedented heat loads and particle fluence with thousands of hours of plasma exposure on plasma-facing components (PFCs) cumulated over the entire lifetime of the device. These components must guarantee an acceptable lifetime, reliable heat exhaust capabilities (10{\textendash}15 MW m−2 power fluxes in steady state) and a high level of resilience after multiple thermal stresses generated by combined steady-state heat loads and transient events, such as edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions. An extensive tungsten (W) PFC testing work-programme has been conducted in the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady State Tokamak) and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamaks, taking advantage of key capabilities and strengths of the two machines. WEST is a superconducting tokamak with long pulse duration capabilities currently equipped with an ITER-grade actively cooled divertor, including shaped monoblocks with a 0.5 mm height toroidal bevel as foreseen for ITER, while AUG allows the exposure of dedicated tile-sized samples (with different geometries, gap sizes, slopes and materials) in ELMy H-mode discharges using its divertor manipulator DIM-II system. The first part of the paper reports on the 4 year long operation of the ITER-grade PFCs in WEST since the commissioning of the divertor in 2022. The second part of the paper presents dedicated experiments performed in AUG and WEST in order to study W failure modes, W melting across toroidal gaps (during sustained or transient melting) and the impact of the runaway electrons on W material. The results reported here provide new information on the W material response (e.g. heating, cracking or melting) of direct relevance to ITER.",

keywords = "heat flux calculation, particle fluence, plasma facing component, runaway impact, tungsten cracking, tungsten melting",

author = "Yann Corre and Aumeunier, \{M. H.\} and J. Bucalossi and M. Diez and A. Durif and A. Ekedahl and N. Fedorczak and M. Firdaouss and E. Gauthier and J. Gerardin and J. Gunn and E. Joffrin and A. Huart and P. Maget and M. Missirlian and C. Reux and M. Richou and H. Roche and Q. Tichit and E. Tsitrone and J. Gaspar and K. Krieger and S. Ratynskaia and K. Paschalidis and T. Rizzi and P. Tolias and R. Dejarnac and A. Podolnik and Antti Hakola and C. Martin and Pitts, \{R. A.\} and M. Wirtz and B. Esposito and M. Regine and C. Monti and \{EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team\} and \{WEST Team\} and \{ASDEX Upgrade Team\} and Aaro Jaervinen and Juuso Karhunen and Anu Kirjasuo and Jari Likonen and Antti Salmi and Antti Snicker and Tuomas Tala and \{et al.\}",

year = "2026",

doi = "10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13",

language = "English",

volume = "66",

journal = "Nuclear Fusion",

issn = "0029-5515",

publisher = "Institute of Physics IOP",

number = "7",

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Corre, Y, Aumeunier, MH, Bucalossi, J, Diez, M, Durif, A, Ekedahl, A, Fedorczak, N, Firdaouss, M, Gauthier, E, Gerardin, J, Gunn, J, Joffrin, E, Huart, A, Maget, P, Missirlian, M, Reux, C, Richou, M, Roche, H, Tichit, Q, Tsitrone, E, Gaspar, J, Krieger, K, Ratynskaia, S, Paschalidis, K, Rizzi, T, Tolias, P, Dejarnac, R, Podolnik, A, Hakola, A, Martin, C, Pitts, RA, Wirtz, M, Esposito, B, Regine, M, Monti, C, EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team, WEST Team, ASDEX Upgrade Team, Jaervinen, A , Karhunen, J, Kirjasuo, A, Likonen, J , Salmi, A , Snicker, A , Tala, T & et al. 2026, 'Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks', Nuclear Fusion, vol. 66, no. 7, 076039. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13

TY - JOUR

T1 - Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks

AU - Corre, Yann

AU - Aumeunier, M. H.

AU - Bucalossi, J.

AU - Diez, M.

AU - Durif, A.

AU - Ekedahl, A.

AU - Fedorczak, N.

AU - Firdaouss, M.

AU - Gauthier, E.

AU - Gerardin, J.

AU - Gunn, J.

AU - Joffrin, E.

AU - Huart, A.

AU - Maget, P.

AU - Missirlian, M.

AU - Reux, C.

AU - Richou, M.

AU - Roche, H.

AU - Tichit, Q.

AU - Tsitrone, E.

AU - Gaspar, J.

AU - Krieger, K.

AU - Ratynskaia, S.

AU - Paschalidis, K.

AU - Rizzi, T.

AU - Tolias, P.

AU - Dejarnac, R.

AU - Podolnik, A.

AU - Hakola, Antti

AU - Martin, C.

AU - Pitts, R. A.

AU - Wirtz, M.

AU - Esposito, B.

AU - Regine, M.

AU - Monti, C.

AU - EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team

AU - WEST Team

AU - ASDEX Upgrade Team

AU - Jaervinen, Aaro

AU - Karhunen, Juuso

AU - Kirjasuo, Anu

AU - Likonen, Jari

AU - Salmi, Antti

AU - Snicker, Antti

AU - Tala, Tuomas

AU - et al.

PY - 2026

Y1 - 2026

N2 - Next step fusion devices will face unprecedented heat loads and particle fluence with thousands of hours of plasma exposure on plasma-facing components (PFCs) cumulated over the entire lifetime of the device. These components must guarantee an acceptable lifetime, reliable heat exhaust capabilities (10–15 MW m−2 power fluxes in steady state) and a high level of resilience after multiple thermal stresses generated by combined steady-state heat loads and transient events, such as edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions. An extensive tungsten (W) PFC testing work-programme has been conducted in the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady State Tokamak) and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamaks, taking advantage of key capabilities and strengths of the two machines. WEST is a superconducting tokamak with long pulse duration capabilities currently equipped with an ITER-grade actively cooled divertor, including shaped monoblocks with a 0.5 mm height toroidal bevel as foreseen for ITER, while AUG allows the exposure of dedicated tile-sized samples (with different geometries, gap sizes, slopes and materials) in ELMy H-mode discharges using its divertor manipulator DIM-II system. The first part of the paper reports on the 4 year long operation of the ITER-grade PFCs in WEST since the commissioning of the divertor in 2022. The second part of the paper presents dedicated experiments performed in AUG and WEST in order to study W failure modes, W melting across toroidal gaps (during sustained or transient melting) and the impact of the runaway electrons on W material. The results reported here provide new information on the W material response (e.g. heating, cracking or melting) of direct relevance to ITER.

AB - Next step fusion devices will face unprecedented heat loads and particle fluence with thousands of hours of plasma exposure on plasma-facing components (PFCs) cumulated over the entire lifetime of the device. These components must guarantee an acceptable lifetime, reliable heat exhaust capabilities (10–15 MW m−2 power fluxes in steady state) and a high level of resilience after multiple thermal stresses generated by combined steady-state heat loads and transient events, such as edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions. An extensive tungsten (W) PFC testing work-programme has been conducted in the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady State Tokamak) and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamaks, taking advantage of key capabilities and strengths of the two machines. WEST is a superconducting tokamak with long pulse duration capabilities currently equipped with an ITER-grade actively cooled divertor, including shaped monoblocks with a 0.5 mm height toroidal bevel as foreseen for ITER, while AUG allows the exposure of dedicated tile-sized samples (with different geometries, gap sizes, slopes and materials) in ELMy H-mode discharges using its divertor manipulator DIM-II system. The first part of the paper reports on the 4 year long operation of the ITER-grade PFCs in WEST since the commissioning of the divertor in 2022. The second part of the paper presents dedicated experiments performed in AUG and WEST in order to study W failure modes, W melting across toroidal gaps (during sustained or transient melting) and the impact of the runaway electrons on W material. The results reported here provide new information on the W material response (e.g. heating, cracking or melting) of direct relevance to ITER.

KW - heat flux calculation

KW - particle fluence

KW - plasma facing component

KW - runaway impact

KW - tungsten cracking

KW - tungsten melting

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105043049783

U2 - 10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13

DO - 10.1088/1741-4326/ae6d13

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105043049783

SN - 0029-5515

VL - 66

JO - Nuclear Fusion

JF - Nuclear Fusion

IS - 7

M1 - 076039

ER -

Testing tungsten plasma facing components in WEST and AUG tokamaks

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Keywords

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