[en] Since 1998 a step by step approach to investigate high-Z material at the main chamber walls of the ASDEX Upgrade divertor tokamak was followed, resulting in 7.1 m² of tungsten coated tiles at the central column during the 2001-02 campaign. Despite this large area, plasma operation was not hampered in any way by tungsten radiation. Results obtained from a variety of confinement regimes indicate that the core tungsten concentration depends mostly on core transport rather than on the tungsten erosion source. For medium density H-mode discharges tungsten concentration ∼ 1·10^-6 are found. Higher concentrations are observed only under discharge conditions where neoclassical accumulation becomes dominant as in case of strong background plasma peaking. On the other hand, core accumulation can be effectively controlled without noticeable confinement degradation by applying central heating. Unexpected high average tungsten erosion due to ions could be attributed to transient limiter phases, especially during plasma ramp-down. (author)