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Design and Testing of Advanced Liquid Metal Targets for DEMO Divertor: The OLMAT Project

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Abstract

In a future fusion reactor like DEMOnstration reactor (DEMO) one of the main concerns is the handling of the power exhaust from the plasma, especially at the divertor. The expected power loads cannot easily be handled by traditional armor solutions based on solid materials like tungsten, especially when the effect of intense neutron bombardment is also considered. Interest in armor concepts based on liquid metals has been subsequently on the rise, as they prove to be more resilient against high, fast power loads and neutron bombardment. However, engineering solutions for those concepts are very complex, and need to be tested. For this purpose, Optimization of Liquid Metal Advanced Targets project (OLMAT) has been envisaged. The project will use the Neutral Beam Injection of the TJ-II stellarator to irradiate liquid metal targets with power densities (neutrals plus occasionally ions) relevant to DEMO steady state operation, in the range of 20 MW/m2. OLMAT design will allow a series of experiments that other divertor simulator devices cannot easily perform: in-situ measurements of hydrogen retention, redeposition, vapor shielding, material fatigue, dust and precipitates effects, etc. Moreover, a high-power fiber laser will be used to simulate Edge Localized Modes in a small area, or to simulate the strike point power deposition profile.

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Acknowledgements

D. Alegre acknowledges the financial support from the fellowships “Ayuda para la Atracción del Talento Investigador de la Comunidad de Madrid”, ref. 2017-T2/AMB-5304 and Eurofusion Researcher Grant, TA ref AWP18-ERG-CIEMAT-Alegre. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MINECO) with Project Number RTI2018-096967-B-I00 and carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training program 2014–2018 and 2019–2020 under agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

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  1. Laboratorio Nacional Fusion, CIEMAT, Av Complutense 40, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    D. Alegre, E. Oyarzabal, D. Tafalla, M. Liniers, A. Soleto & F. L. Tabarés

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  1. D. Alegre
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Alegre, D., Oyarzabal, E., Tafalla, D. et al. Design and Testing of Advanced Liquid Metal Targets for DEMO Divertor: The OLMAT Project. J Fusion Energ 39, 411–420 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-020-00254-5

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