Liquid gallium jet as a limiter in tokamak: design of the stand

Full text: Plasma facing surfaces should be considered as the most loaded components of the proposed fusion devices. Load densities (up to 1 GW/m2 ) would result in unacceptably high levels of thermal stresses and erosion. Solutions have been proposed when plasma is contacting not a solid material but a liquid metal in permanent motion. Usually, because of its low Z-number, lithium is considered as the most compatible with plasma. In the given research gallium is used - an essentially more convenient in practice material, outstanding by its low saturated vapor pressure. On tokamak ISTTOK (Portugal, R=0.46m; a=0.085m; BT =0.45 T; Ip =8 kA) it is proposed to replace the existing metallic limiter by a liquid gallium jet. The jet forming nozzle is connected with the constant pressure vessel (at the level 1.3 m) by a 1/4 '' SS tube. For an exact determination of the jets length on the level 0.7 m an electrically controlled flow interrupting valve is installed. The metal is brought up into the pressure vessel by an e.m. pump on permanent magnets. The loop is designed in such a way that the liquid metal remains properly insulated both from the plasma vessel walls as well as from the plasma potential