Monte Carlo calculation of the thermal radiation heat load of the ITER pre-production cryopump

Large-scale customized cryogenic pumps are employed to pump the ITER torus. The high performance of this kind of non-conventional cryopumps is achieved by the cryosorption of the gas load on the charcoal-coated panels working at 4.5 K. In order to avoid the direct thermal radiation, the 4.5 K pumping panels are installed inside a 80 K heat shielding system. In this paper, we will present the Monte Carlo simulation of the thermal radiation heat loads to the cryopanel circuit, the thermal shield circuit and the valve head when the pump is in stand-by, pumping and regeneration. The results are of great importance in the design of the ITER pre-production cryopump (PPC).

► Thermal radiation heat loads to the ITER pre-production cryopump (PPC) were obtained by the Monte Carlo Ray Trace approach for the first time. ► The feasibility study showed the reason of our choice of this approach. ► Parallelized version of ProVac3D developed by ourselves was used with the high performance computer for fusion (HPC-FF). ► The results are important for the ITER PPC design optimization and as the input parameter for the ITER cryogenic plant.