Formation of deuterium–carbon inventories in gaps of plasma facing components

Plasma facing components for ITER will be manufactured as macro brush structures or with castellated surfaces. Material samples with gaps of similar geometry as intended for ITER were exposed to different plasma conditions in TEXTOR, DIII-D and ASDEX Upgrade. In all devices a decrease of both carbon and deuterium inventories at the side faces from the gap entrance into the gap with scale-lengths in the mm range is found. The fraction of D retained at the gap surfaces is in the range of 0.4–4% of the incident flux. Main parameters determining the retained D-fraction are the temperature of the respective surfaces and the carbon fraction in the incident flux. Extrapolation of tritium inventory growth rates to ITER dimensions assuming the measured retention fractions at T > 200 °C and using a D/T-flux distribution with a carbon fraction of ≈1% from B2/EIRENE simulations of an ITER H-mode discharge yields a contribution to the increase of the total in-vessel tritium inventory in the range of 0.5–5 g T/discharge.