Development of Lithium CPS Based Limiters for Realization of a Concept of Closed Lithium Circulation Loop in Tokamak

Cooling of tokamak boundary plasma owing to radiation of non-fully stripped lithium ions is considered as a promising way for protection of plasma facing elements (PFE) in tokamak. It may be effectively realized when the main part of lithium ions are involved in the closed circuit of migration between plasma and PFE surface. Such an approach may be implemented with the use of lithium device whose hot (500–600 °C) area to be effected by plasma serves as a Li-emitter and the cold part (∼180 °C) as a Li-collector in the shadow. Capillary-pore system (CPS) provides the returning of collected and condensed lithium to emitting zone by capillary forces. The main goals of the last T-11 M lithium experiments were investigating Li ions transport in the tokamak scrape of layer (SOL) and their collecting by different kinds of limiters. The design of devices based on lithium CPS with different ratio of emitting/collecting area is the main subject of this paper.