From eroded material to dust: An experimental evaluation of the mobilised dust production in Tore Supra

In a fusion reactor like ITER, in-vessel materials are subjected to interactions with the plasma. One of the main consequences of these plasma-material interactions is the creation of co-deposited layers especially with Beryllium and Carbon based materials. Due to internal stresses, part of these layers can crack leading to micro particle creation. The purpose of the following paper is to review the tokamak operation processes that lead to the erosion of the bulk material and then to layer creation. The proportion of these layers that are converted into micro particles will be evaluated in the case of Tore Supra experiments. For Tore Supra, this conversion factor (Cd) is close to 7–8% comparable to the current ITER retained value of 10%. In the second part of the papers, diagnostics which can be used to constraint the Cd value are proposed.