• Energy Research

This paper summarizes the observations on the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) observed during the first high fluence campaign performed in WEST. The campaign was characterized by high erosion and deposition rates, generating dusts and deposits prone to flaking during plasma operation. A total of 686 UFOs have been detected for 384 discharges executed, in which 133 UFOs lead to a disruption. These UFOs appear mostly during the low hybrid heating ramp-up early in the discharges. The mechanisms leading to a disruption is described as well as the delay available to react after the UFO entering in the plasma. The UFOs originate mostly from the high field side corresponding to the thick deposit area. These UFOs can be debris from a preceding disruption (≈27 %) or come from progressive loss of adherence of the thick deposits (≈55 %) under plasma cycling or more likely by disruption on this area. Finally, the thermal resistance of the poorly attached deposits has been calculated in the range from 2.10−4 °C m2/W to 1.10−3 °C m2/W coherent with previous observations in the high field side of the JET divertor.

This paper summarizes the observations on the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) observed during the first high fluence campaign performed in WEST. The campaign was characterized by high erosion and deposition rates, generating dusts and deposits prone to flaking during plasma operation. A total of 686 UFOs have been detected for 384 discharges executed, in which 133 UFOs lead to a disruption. These UFOs appear mostly during the low hybrid heating ramp-up early in the discharges. The mechanisms leading to a disruption is described as well as the delay available to react after the UFO entering in the plasma. The UFOs originate mostly from the high field side corresponding to the thick deposit area. These UFOs can be debris from a preceding disruption (≈27 %) or come from progressive loss of adherence of the thick deposits (≈55 %) under plasma cycling or more likely by disruption on this area. Finally, the thermal resistance of the poorly attached deposits has been calculated in the range from 2.10−4 °C m2/W to 1.10−3 °C m2/W coherent with previous observations in the high field side of the JET divertor.

Future fusion reactors like ITER and DEMO will have all-tungsten (W) walls and long pulses. These features will make wall conditioning more difficult than in most of the existing devices. The W Environment Steady-state Tokamak (WEST) is one of the few long pulse (364 s) fusion devices with actively cooled W plasma-facing components in the world. WEST is a unique test bed to study impurity migration and plasma density control via reactor relevant wall conditioning techniques. The phase II of WEST operations began in 2022, after the installation of a new lower divertor, now entirely equipped with actively cooled, ITER grade, W monoblocks. After pump down, we baked WEST between 90 °C and 170 °C for ∼2 weeks. After 82.5 h at 90 °C and 33 h at 170 °C, vacuum conditions were stable with a vessel pressure of 6x10-5 Pa and mass spectra dominated by H2 molecules. While at 170 °C, we performed ∼40 h of D2 glow discharge cleaning (GDC) and ∼5 h of glow discharge boronization (GDB), using a 15 %-85 % B2D6-He mix and a total boron mass of ∼12 g. This was the very first GDB at such high temperature for WEST. The whole wall conditioning sequence led to a ∼10 times reduction of the H2O signal as well as to a ∼3 times reduction of the O2 signal, according to mass spectra. Once back to 70 °C, the vessel pressure was 5.5x10-6 Pa and plasma restart was seamless with ∼30 s cumulated over the very first 5 pulses and an Ohmic radiated power fraction Frad = 0.6, showing successful conditioning of the new ITER grade divertor. The effect of the first, ‘hot’ GDB faded with a characteristic cumulative injected energy of 2.45 GJ and saturation towards Frad ∼0.8. After 1.4 h and 7.5 GJ of cumulative plasma time and injected energy, we carried out a second GDB, this time at 70 °C. This ‘cold’ GDB initially led to a much lower Ohmic Frad = 0.3–0.4 but the effect lasted ∼7 times less, with a characteristic cumulative injected energy of 0.37 GJ. At the end of the campaign, we cumulated ∼3h and ∼30 GJ through repetitive, minute long pulses without any boronization. Throughout this 4-weeks-long experiment, Frad in the 4 MW heating phase evolved only marginally (from 0.5 to 0.55). This increase is mostly due to the build-up of re/co-deposited layers on both lower divertor targets.

Future fusion reactors like ITER and DEMO will have all-tungsten (W) walls and long pulses. These features will make wall conditioning more difficult than in most of the existing devices. The W Environment Steady-state Tokamak (WEST) is one of the few long pulse (364 s) fusion devices with actively cooled W plasma-facing components in the world. WEST is a unique test bed to study impurity migration and plasma density control via reactor relevant wall conditioning techniques. The phase II of WEST operations began in 2022, after the installation of a new lower divertor, now entirely equipped with actively cooled, ITER grade, W monoblocks. After pump down, we baked WEST between 90 °C and 170 °C for ∼2 weeks. After 82.5 h at 90 °C and 33 h at 170 °C, vacuum conditions were stable with a vessel pressure of 6x10-5 Pa and mass spectra dominated by H2 molecules. While at 170 °C, we performed ∼40 h of D2 glow discharge cleaning (GDC) and ∼5 h of glow discharge boronization (GDB), using a 15 %-85 % B2D6-He mix and a total boron mass of ∼12 g. This was the very first GDB at such high temperature for WEST. The whole wall conditioning sequence led to a ∼10 times reduction of the H2O signal as well as to a ∼3 times reduction of the O2 signal, according to mass spectra. Once back to 70 °C, the vessel pressure was 5.5x10-6 Pa and plasma restart was seamless with ∼30 s cumulated over the very first 5 pulses and an Ohmic radiated power fraction Frad = 0.6, showing successful conditioning of the new ITER grade divertor. The effect of the first, ‘hot’ GDB faded with a characteristic cumulative injected energy of 2.45 GJ and saturation towards Frad ∼0.8. After 1.4 h and 7.5 GJ of cumulative plasma time and injected energy, we carried out a second GDB, this time at 70 °C. This ‘cold’ GDB initially led to a much lower Ohmic Frad = 0.3–0.4 but the effect lasted ∼7 times less, with a characteristic cumulative injected energy of 0.37 GJ. At the end of the campaign, we cumulated ∼3h and ∼30 GJ through repetitive, minute long pulses without any boronization. Throughout this 4-weeks-long experiment, Frad in the 4 MW heating phase evolved only marginally (from 0.5 to 0.55). This increase is mostly due to the build-up of re/co-deposited layers on both lower divertor targets.

Nuclear materials and energy 37, 101546 - (2023). doi:10.1016/j.nme.2023.101546 Published by Elsevier, Amsterdam [u.a.]

Nuclear materials and energy 37, 101546 - (2023). doi:10.1016/j.nme.2023.101546 Published by Elsevier, Amsterdam [u.a.]