The WEST experimental campaign which took place between the 27th of November and the 27th of January 2021 proved successful with testing of a significant number of ITER-like Plasma Facing Components (PFC). Moreover, new tiles made from a low Z materials were introduced on the inner and outer start up limiters as well as a new Impurity Powder Dropper (IPD) installed thanks to the collaboration of WEST and the US Department of Energy. The implementation of the latter one resulted in the promising reduction of the radiation power and improved energy confinement.
What needs to be noted, the WEST tokamak applies for its operation an actively cooled divertor. Its technology resembles the ITER one and can provide plasma discharges similar in duration to the discharges of ITER. The divertor ring will be composed of 456 actively cooled tungsten PFC which are now undergoing the validation process. Among the stages are: PFC pipe cutting, mounting, welding and leak detection. It is planned to install the sectors with standard PFC in spring 2021 and the first plasma is expected in summer 2021 given the complete divertor configuration.
For more technical details please visit: irfm.cea.fr/en
Source: irfm.cea.fr
Photo: WEST Vacuum Vessel; CEA/IRFM - C. Roux
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