Abstract:Disruptions are a critical issue for ITER because of the high thermal and magnetic energies that are released on short time scales, which results in extreme forces and heat loads. The choice of material of the plasma facing components (PFCs) can have significant impact on the loads that arise during a disruption. With the ITER-like wall (ILW) in JET made of beryllium in the main chamber and tungsten in the divertor, the main finding is a low fraction of radiation. This has dropped significantly with the ILW from 50-100% of the total energy being dissipated in the plasma with CFC to less than 50% on average and down to just 10% for VDEs. All other changes in disruption properties and loads are consequences of this low radiation: long current quenches, high vessel forces caused by halo currents and toroidal current asymmetries as well as severe heat loads. Temperatures close to the melting limit have been locally observed on upper first wall structures during deliberate VDE and even at plasma currents as low as 1.5 MA and thermal energy of about 1.5 MJ only. A high radiation fraction can be regained by massive injection of a mixture of 10%Ar with 90%D 2 . This accelerates the current quench and by this reducing halo and sideways impact. The temperature of PFCs stays below 400 ∘ C. MGI is now a mandatory tool to mitigate disruptions in closed-loop operation for currents at and above 2.5 MA in JET.

This paper describes the status of the pre-conceptual design activities in Europe to advance the technical basis of the design of a DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant (DEMO) to come in operation around the middle of this century with the main aims of demonstrating the production of few hundred MWs of net electricity, the feasibility of operation with a closedtritium fuel cycle, and maintenance systems capable of achieving adequate plant availability. This is expected to benefit as much as possible from the ITER experience, in terms of design, licensing, and construction. Emphasis is on an integrated design approach, based on system engineering, which provides a clear path for urgent R&D and addresses the main design integration issues by taking account critical systems interdependencies and inherent uncertainties of important design assumptions (physics and technology). A design readiness evaluation, together with a technology maturation and down selection strategy are planned through structured and transparent Gate Reviews. By embedding industry experience in the design from the beginning it will ensure that early attention is given to technology readiness and industrial feasibility, costs, maintenance, power conversion, nuclear safety and licensing aspects.

A key feature of disruptions during vertical displacement events, discovered in JET in 1996, is the toroidal variation in the measured plasma current Ip, i.e. the plasma current asymmetries, lasting for almost the entire current quench. The unique magnetic diagnostics at JET (full set of poloidal coils and saddle loops recorded either from two toroidally opposite or from four toroidally orthogonal locations) allow for a comprehensive analysis of asymmetrical disruptions with a large scale database. This paper presents an analysis of 4854 disruptions over an 18 year period that includes both the JET carbon (C) wall and the ITER-like (IL) wall (a mixed beryllium/tungsten first wall). In spite of the Ip quench time significantly increasing for the IL-wall compared to C-wall disruptions, the observed toroidal asymmetry time integral (∼ sideways force impulse), did not increase for IL-wall disruptions. The Ip asymmetry has a dominantly n = 1 structure. Its motion in the toroidal direction has a sporadic behaviour, in general. The distributions of the number of rotation periods are found to be very similar for both C- and IL-wall disruptions, and multi-turn rotation was sometimes observed. The Ip asymmetry amplitude has no degradation with rotation frequency for either the C- or IL-wall disruption. Therefore dynamic amplification remains a potentially serious issue for ITER due to possible mechanical resonance of the machine components with the rotating asymmetry.