Engineering design of a radiative divertor for DIII-D

A new divertor called the Radiative Divertor is presently being designed for the DIII-D tokamak. Input from tokamak experiments and modeling form the basis for the new design. The Radiative Divertor is intended to reduce the heat flux on the divertor plates by dispersing the power with radiation. Gas puffing experiments in the current open divertor have shown a reduction of the divertor heat flux with either deuterium or impurity puffing. However, either the plasma density (D2) or the core Zeff (impurities) increases in these experiments. The radiative divertor uses a slot structure to isolate the divertor plasma region from the area surrounding the core plasma. Modeling has shown that the Radiative Divertor hardware will provide better baffling and particle control and thereby minimize the effect of the gas puffing in the divertor region on the plasma core. In addition, the Radiative Divertor structure will allow density control in plasma shapes with high triangularity (>0.8) required for advanced tokamak operation. The divertor structure allows for operation in either double or single-null plasma configurations. Four independently controlled divertor cryopumps will enable pumping at either the inboard (upper and lower) or the outboard (upper and lower) divertor plates. Biasing is an integral part of the design and is based on experience at the Tokamak de Varennes (TdeV) and DIII-D. Boron nitride tiles electrically insulate the inner and outer strike points and a low current electrode is used to apply a radial electric field to the scrape-off layer. TdeV has shown that biasing can provide particle and impurity control. The design is extremely flexible, and will allow physics studies of the effect of slot width and height. This is extremely important as the amount of chamber volume needed for the divertor in future machines such as International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER) and Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) must be determined