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Metal dust behaviour in fusion reactors

Dust in fusion devices is still an open issue from the point of view of plasma operations and safety and due to its high fuel retention capability and mobility.
Thus, dust behaviour in such environments needs to be understood.

The analysis of this behaviour is both theoretical, focused on dust mobilization conditions, and experimental, aiming at mimicking these conditions.

The experimental work consists in the controlled deposition, in terms of position on the surface and impact velocity, of materials that can be found in reactors and in thPRINCIPALe following exposure to different plasma conditions in various facilities.
A detailed mapping, carried out through scanning electron microscopy, of pre- and post-exposed samples allows to detect particle movement due to plasma effects. A comprehensive resume of this work can be read in this paper, submitted for publishing.

Adhesion force of micro-particles on metallic surfaces is experimentally assessed by applying intense electric fields to the surface, able to remove particles with measurable forces, proportional to the field intensity.
The influence of parameters such as nature of the materials, dust size and surface roughness can be evaluated.
Such information can be used to tune theoretical models which describe dust mobilization.

  • Pellet injection system
  • Particles after exposure to plasma

  • KEYWORDS:
    metal dust fusion reactors
  • RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
    • S. Ratynskaia et al.
      Dust–surface collisions in adhesion regime for tokamak relevant materials
      Journal of Nuclear Materials    link
    • M. De Angeli et al.
      Dust characterization in FTU tokamak
      Journal of Nuclear Materials    link
    • S. Ratynskaia et al.
      Elastic–plastic adhesive impacts of tungsten dust with metal surfaces in plasma environments
      Journal of Nuclear Materials    link
  • COLLABORATIONS:
    This activity started in 2012 with the collaboration of researchers from various institutes and universities, among which:
    • Istituto di Fisica del Plasma – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
    • KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Association EUROfusion-VR, Stoccolma
    • Université de Lorraine, Institut Jean Lamour, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy
    • FOM Institute DIFFER, Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research, Nieuwegein