Power deposition and margins on the Tore Supra pump limiter and fabrication of the high heat flux components

A complete toroidal pump limiter (TPL) is being built at Tore Supra. This l imiter will cover 7.5 m(2) of the bottom part in the vacuum inner vessel. I t will be composed of 574 elementary high heat flux components facing the p lasma, named fingers. Below the limiter in the pumping throat, 48 other fin gers are positioned as neutraliser elements. All the fingers, made of CuCrZ r alloy, are actively cooled by pressurised water and covered with carbon f iber composite (CFC). The limiter is designed to remove continuously (1000 s) a convective power of 15 MW and to exhaust a particle flow up to 4 Pa m( 3)/s. The power deposition on all the elements of this limiter was predicte d using the TOKAFLU code developed by CEA and taking into account the self- shadowing of the limiter. The heat flux on the standard finger remains belo w 10 MW/m(2) whereas it reaches up to a peaked value of 15 MW/m(2) for some neutraliser fingers. Margins with regard to critical heat flux (CHF), surf ace temperature and interface temperature between CFC and copper are studie d. The fingers are now in fabrication. Before launching the manufacture, sc ale-one elements were fatigue tested and industrialisation processes were o ptimised in order to increase the manufacturing efficiency. As non-destruct ive controls are used all along the manufacturing process, a good reliabili ty of the components is expected. Specific high temperature helium leak tes ting and infrared testing are used as a global acceptance test of each elem ent. Up to now 100 fingers have been delivered. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.