Design, R&D and commissioning of EAST tungsten divertor

Abstract

After commissioning in 2005, the EAST superconducting tokamak had been operated with its water cooled divertors for eight campaigns up to 2012, employing graphite as plasma facing material. With increase in heating power over 20 MW in recent years, the heat flux going to the divertors rises rapidly over 10 MW m−2 for steady state operation. To accommodate the rapid increasing heat load in EAST, the bolting graphite tile divertor must be upgraded. An ITER-like tungsten (W) divertor has been designed and developed; and firstly used for the upper divertor of EAST. The EAST upper W divertor is modular structure with 80 modules in total. Eighty sets of W/Cu plasma-facing components (PFC) with each set consisting of an outer vertical target (OVT), an inner vertical target (IVT) and a DOME, are attached to 80 stainless steel cassette bodies (CB) by pins. The monoblock W/Cu-PFCs have been developed for the strike points of both OVT and IVT, and the flat type W/Cu-PFCs for the DOME and the baffle parts of both OVT and IVT, employing so-called hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technology for tungsten to CuCrZr heat sink bonding, and electron beam welding for CuCrZr to CuCrZr and CuCrZr to other material bonding.Both monoblock and flat type PFC mockups passed high heat flux (HHF) testing by means of electron beam facilities. The 80 divertor modules were installed in EAST in 2014 and results of the first commissioning are presented in this paper.