Specification of asymmetric VDE loads of the ITER tokamak

During asymmetric vertical displacement events (AVDEs) associated with the kink mode of the plasma two asymmetry phenomena were observed in existing tokamaks, in particular in JET [1]. The related halo currents flowing in the passive structure were identified as the cause of asymmetric EM loads on tokamak components. The first phenomenon is a toroidal peak of the poloidal halo current that flows in the passive structure. The second phenomenon is that the toroidal plasma current is not uniform toroidally, so a toroidally non-uniform current flows in the vessel [2]. The specification of the expected characteristics of both phenomena as well as of the consequent asymmetric loads in ITER are summarized here. The related loads are specified for likely, unlikely and extremely unlikely AVDEs.