Erosion, Contamination, and Migration

This paper will summarize studies of carbon impurity sources, contamination, and migration developed through JET methane gas injection experiments. These studies were analyzed using the 2D SOL code EDGE2D/NIMBUS. The code is capable of repeating the JET analysis using the ITER geometry and SOL plasma. This allows assessment of whether the physical processes occurring in JET might also occur in ITER, and thus whether the JET results transfer, in any sense, to the ITER plasmas. Certainly, the ITER choice of wall materials (W and Be) is different than for the present JET C studies. So the present status of these studies is to relate JET carbon behavior to carbon in ITER.

JET carbon sources were studied spectroscopically and analyzed with atomic physics models in EDGE2D. The carbon sources are dominated by chemical sputtering at rates which are within a factor-of-two of the published literature. The JET carbon contamination is dominated by main chamber sources which are ionized in the main chamber SOL about 1-2 cm from the separatrix. Contamination occurs from carbon ions which diffuse across the field lines and reach the separatrix before they can parallel transport to the divertor. JET carbon migration was studied by injecting methane composed of ¹³C on the last run day before an opening and then analyzing removed tiles to identify migration to those locations. Modeling was accomplished by the same EDGE2D models that were used to describe the carbon sources and contamination. The entire migration process is complicated.