Abstract
During normal operation of the ITER tokamak, few hundred kilograms of dust containing beryllium (Be) and tungsten (W) will be produced due to the erosion of the walls of the vacuum chamber by the plasma. During a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) or a loss of vacuum accident by air ingress (LOVA), hydrogen could be produced by dust oxidation with steam. Evaluation of the risk of dust and hydrogen explosion, that may lead to a loss of containment, requires studying the physical processes involved in the dust re-suspension and its distribution in the tokamak chamber. This experimental study is conducted by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) to simulate dust re-suspension phenomena induced by high velocity jet under low pressure conditions. Tests are conducted in a large scale facility (TOSQAN, 7 m3) able to reproduce primary vacuum conditions (1 mbar). Optical diagnostics such as PIV technique (Particles Image Velocimetry) are implemented on the facility to provide time resolved measurements of the dust re-suspension in terms of phenomenology and velocity. We present in this paper the TOSQAN facility with its configuration for studying dust re-suspension under low pressure conditions and underway experiments showing the mechanism of dust re-suspension by sonic and supersonic flows.
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