Modular He-cooled divertor for power plant application

Gas cooled divertor concepts are regarded as a suitable option for fusion power plants because of an increased thermal efficiency for power conversion systems and the use of a coolant compatible with all blanket systems. A modular helium cooled divertor concept is proposed with an improved heat transfer. The concept employs small tiles made of tungsten and brazed to a finger-like structure made of Mo-alloy (TZM). Design goal was a heat flux of at least 15 MW/m2 and a minimum temperature of the structure of 600 °C. The divertor has to survive a number of cycles (100–1000) between operating temperature and room temperature even for the steady state operation assumed. Thermo-hydraulic design requirements for the concepts include to keep the pumping power below 10% of the thermal power to the divertor plates, and simultaneously achieving a heat transfer coefficient in excess of 60 kW/m2 K. Inelastic stress analysis indicates that design allowable stress limits on primary and secondary (thermal) stresses as required by the ITER structural design criteria are met even under conservative assumptions. Finally, critical issues for future development are addressed.