Overview of long-term fuel inventory and co-deposition in castellated beryllium limiters at JET

Abstract

Morphology of castellated Be tiles from the belt limiter exposed to the JET plasma for 56,000 s was examined on both sides of castellated grooves, on plasma-facing and side surfaces of the tiles. The essential results are (i) deuterium retention in the castellated grooves and in other locations is associated with co-deposition of carbon; (ii) the decay length of deposition in the castellation is around 1.5 mm; (iii) no deuterium is detected in bulk Be; (iv) bridging of gaps by molten beryllium occurred but gaps were not filled with Be; (v) on side surfaces of the tiles the formation of BeO layer was detected at a distance of 20 mm and more from the plasma-facing surface. The consequences for a long-term operation of a reactor-class device with several different plasma-facing materials are addressed.