Dust accelerators and their applications in high-temperature plasmas

The perennial presence of dust in high-temperature plasma and fusion devices has been firmly established. Dust inventory must be controlled, in particular in the next-generation steady-state fusion machines like ITER, as it can pose significant safety hazards and potentially interfere with fusion energy production. Much effort has been devoted to gening rid of the dust nuisance. We have recognized a number of dust-accelerators applications in magnetic fusion, including in plasma diagnostics, in studying dust-plasma interactions, and more recently in edge localized mode (ELM)'s pacing. With the applications in mind, we will compare various acceleration methods, including electrostatic, gas-drag, and plasma-drag acceleration. We will also describe laboratory experiments and results on dust acceleration.