Published in

MDPI, Journal of Nuclear Engineering, 1(4), p. 204-212, 2023

DOI: 10.3390/jne4010016

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Bubble Formation in ITER-Grade Tungsten after Exposure to Stationary D/He Plasma and ELM-like Thermal Shocks

Journal article published in 2023 by Mauricio Gago ORCID, Arkadi Kreter, Bernhard Unterberg, Marius Wirtz ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Plasma-facing materials (PFMs) in the ITER divertor will be exposed to severe conditions, including exposure to transient heat loads from edge-localized modes (ELMs) and to plasma particles and neutrons. Tungsten is the material chosen as PFM for the ITER divertor. In previous tests, bubble formation in ITER-grade tungsten was detected when exposed to fusion relevant conditions. For this study, ITER-grade tungsten was exposed to simultaneous ELM-like transient heat loads and D/He (6%) plasma in the linear plasma device PSI-2. Bubble formation was then investigated via SEM micrographs and FIB cuts. It was found that for exposure to 100.000 laser pulses of 0.6 GWm−2 absorbed power density (Pabs), only small bubbles in the nanometer range were formed close to the surface. After increasing Pabs to 0.8 and 1.0 GWm−2, the size of the bubbles went up to about 1 µm in size and were deeper below the surface. Increasing the plasma fluence had an even larger effect, more than doubling bubble density and increasing bubble size to up to 2 µm in diameter. When using deuterium-only plasma, the samples showed no bubble formation and reduced cracking, showing such bubble formation is caused by exposure to helium plasma.