Lithium-Gettered Moving Surface Plasma-Facing Components for Particle Control in Steady State Magnetic Fusion Devices

Abstract

In our previous work, the first proof-of-principle experiments were successfully conducted on the particle control capability based on the concept of moving-surface plasma-facing component (MS-PFC). Over a continuously titanium-gettered rotating drum, hydrogen recycling was found to be reduced down to levels around 94% even at steady state. These experiments on the MS-PFC concept have now been extended to the second stage where lithium is employed as the getter material, while using the same rotating drum. These experiments are intended to pilot the potential use of lithium as a flowing liquid facing the edge plasmas in steady state reactors beyond ITER. Reported in this paper are rather dramatic findings that hydrogen recycling is reduced down to levels around 76% and 86% at steady state over the rotating drum at the lithium deposition rates of 9.5 Å/s and 7.3 Å/s, respectively. These steady state recycling data have been nicely reproduced by a simple zero-dimensional particle balance model.