Review of Wall Conditioning and Wall Materials for Fusion Research Devices

Abstract

Wall materials for fusion research must meet stringent requirements. The purity of a fusion plasma is critical to obtaining meaningful results during fusion plasma experiments. The concentration of impurity ions in the plasma must be kept low because impurities result in radiative losses that at best decrease the efficiency of the plasma “burn” and at worst prevent ignition completely. Radiative losses scale with the effective charge, Z, of the plasma. Radiative losses due to bremsstrahlung are proportional to Z2; those due to recombination are proportional to Z4. Figure 1 shows the impurity concentration above which ignition cannot be achieved as a function of impurity atomic number for an experimental power reactor. The advantage of using a low-Z material as the first wall of a fusion machine (i.e., as the plasma-facing material) is evident.The major plasma impurities observed in most experiments are oxygen, carbon, and first-wall material. These impurities are introduced into the plasma by many mechanisms, including outgassing, desorption, chemical interaction, sputtering, and evaporation. Chemical and physical interactions between the first wall and the energetic hydrogenic ions produced in the plasma are important factors in impurity production. (Here “hydrogen” refers to hydrogen and its isotopes, deuterium and tritium.)The energy contained in the plasma can be quite large (many megajoules) and can interact with the first wall on a short rime-scale (e.g., a millisecond). It is possible that no material will prove suitable for all operational scenarios. Therefore, the burden of reducing the plasma/first-wall interaction to an acceptable level rests on both plasma and materials scientists.