Research of lithium capillary-pore systems for fusion reactor plasma facing components

To date there is no adequate solution for high heat load plasma facing components of the next step fusion reactor among solid material options. A lithium-filled capillary porous systems (CPS) was proposed as a plasma facing material and experimental work on this subject is now in progress. Steady-state experiments with CPS-based target and lithium supply systems have shown successful operation at heat fluxes of 1–10 MW/m2 during several hours. Experimental data is obtained on lithium CPS stability at heat flux up to 25–50 MW/m2. The lithium CPS behaviour in contact with real tokamak plasma is considered for normal discharge condition at 10 MW/m2 and for plasma disruption at 15 MJ/m2. Erosion mechanism of lithium under tokamak plasma impact was analysed. Stability of lithium CPS in tokamak conditions was shown.