USING THE TRITIUM PLASMA-EXPERIMENT TO EVALUATE ITER PFC SAFETY

The Tritium Plasma Experiment was assembled at Sandia National Laborat ories, Livermore and is being moved to the Tritium Systems Test Assemb ly facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory to investigate interacti ons between dense plasmas at low energies and plasma-facing component materials. This apparatus has the unique capabilty of replicating plas ma conditions in a tokamak divertor with particle flux densities of 2 x 10(23) ions/m2.s and a plasma temperature of about 15 eV using a pla sma that includes tritium. An experimental program has been initiated using the Tritium Plasma Experiment to examine safety issues related t o tritium in plasma-facing components, particularly the ITER divertor. Those issues include tritium retention and release characteristics, t ritium permeation rates and transient times to coolant streams, surfac e modification and erosion by the plasma, the effects of thermal loads and cycling, and particulate production. An industrial consortium led by McDonnell Douglas will design and fabricate the test fixtures.