Protection of tokamak plasma facing components by a capillary porous system with lithium

Highlights: • CPS filled with liquid lithium applied as structural material of PFC in tokamak. • Behavior of lithium CPS at normal and disruption condition has been studied. • Concept of closed loop of lithium circulation in tokamak chamber has been confirmed experimentally. - Abstract: Development of plasma facing material (PFM) based on the Capillary-Porous System (CPS) with lithium and activity on realization of lithium application strategy are addressed to meet the challenges under the creation of steady-state tokamak fusion reactor and fusion neutron source. Presented overview of experimental study of lithium CPS in plasma devices demonstrates the progress in protection of tokamak plasma facing components (PFC) from damage, stabilization and self-renewal of liquid lithium surface, elimination of plasma pollution and lithium accumulation in tokamak chamber. The possibility of PFC protection from the high power load related to cooling of the tokamak boundary plasma by radiation of non-fully stripped lithium ions supported by experimental results. This approach demonstrated in scheme of closed loops of Li circulation in the tokamak vacuum chamber and realized in a series of design of tokamak in-vessel elements