Upgrade of the protection system for the first wall at JET in the ITER Be and W tiles perspective

At JET the increase of the additional heating power and the first wall upgrade with a new Be and W tiles in preparation for ITER will require improving the protection system in order to guarantee the integrity of the wall. An accurate estimation of the power load and the temperature of the tiles during a discharge will become crucial to prevent damage to the structure. In that perspective the JET protection system (WALLS) has been substantially improved and is now running at JET. The plasma magnetic information and the input power to the plasma are used to evaluate the thermal load all along the first wall. The evolution of the power distribution and tile temperature during and after a discharge are then calculated by the system. A termination of the discharge is required if a thermal limit is reached or if a vulnerable area of the vessel is exposed to an excessive level of power. An improvement in the results has been obtained using more accurate plasma boundary and magnetic information [L.Zabeo et al.'A new approach to the solution of the vacuum magnetic problem in fusion machines' this conference], developing a detailed physical model (state space) for the heat diffusion for the tiles and having a better estimation of the power deposition and distribution. The real-time data provided by the bolometry has also been taken into the account in order to evaluate the radiated power. The calibration and validation of the system have been achieved with a systematic comparison between the implemented models and the temperatures provided by the thermocouples and the new Infrared Camera. In this paper a description of the structure of the system will be briefly summarized. The models adopted to estimate the power distribution and the thermal diffusion and the comparison with IR camera will be also reported, followed by some experimental examples. (author)