Characterization of Tokamak Dust Collected from Tore Supra

Abstract

Tokamak dust, the particulate matter generated during operation of a tokamak fusion device, was collected from Tore Supra in December 1999, during the initial phase of the scheduled shutdown for installation of advanced plasma facing components. Surface mass densities of material collected from locations with measured surface area are 1100 mg/m² at the vessel bottom and 15 mg/m² on average for all other locations. The specific surface area of dust collected from several locations is nearly uniform with an average value of 1.32 g/m². Geometric mean diameters of samples from different locations have an average value of 3.0 μm, although geometric standard deviations vary from 1.93 to 4.03. The dust is composed of various quantities of carbon, iron, nickel, silicon, and chromium, among other trace elements.