Liquid metal “divertorlets” concept for fusion reactors

Abstract

A new, novel approach to liquid metal plasma facing components called “divertorlets” is presented and accompanied by experiments, simulations, and analysis. The development of a robust and reliable plasma facing component at the divertor is ongoing, with liquid metal divertor concepts gaining interest by showing promise for being able to handle higher heat fluxes as well as improve plasma performance through a reduction in particle recycling. The presented design in this work seeks to address challenges associated with evaporation, operation power, and liquid metal inventory. Divertorlets utilize many adjacent narrow channels with alternating vertical velocity that maintain large flow rates with small velocities at the surface by minimizing the flow path length. Preliminary results using a test stand on LMX-U at PPPL and simulations in COMSOL demonstrate the successful operation and the potential for divertorlets to remove large heat fluxes, with projections made to reactor scale showing the expected system performance.

Keywords

• Flowing liquid metal
• Divertor
• Lithium
• Low-recycling
• Divertorlets
• High heat flux