Simulation of divertor targets shielding during transients in ITER

Direct extrapolation of the disruptive heat flux on ITER conditions predicts severe melting and vaporization of the divertor targets causing their intolerable damage. However, tungsten vaporized from the target at initial stage of the disruption can create plasma shield in front of the target, which effectively protects the target surface from the rest of the heat flux. Estimation of this shielding efficiency has been performed using the TOKES code. The shielding effect under ITER conditions is found to be very strong: the maximal depth of the melt layer reduced 4 times, the melt layer width-more than 10 times and vaporization region shrinks 10-15 times due to shielding for unmitigated disruption of 350 MJ discharge. The simulation results show complex, 2D plasma dynamics of the shield under ITER conditions. However, a simplified analytic model, valid for rough estimation of the maximum value for the shielded flux to the target and for the melt depth at the target surface has been developed.