An Impurity Control Test Facility (ICTF) for the Study of Fusion Reactor/Plasma Edge Materials

A test facility has been designed for investigating many of the impurity control issues associated with fusion reactors. The facility is a steady-state, rf-stabilized mirror with high field and high pumping capability end cells. Analysis indicates that the ICTF should readily produce a plasma with typical parameters of N_e = 3 × 10¹⁸ m⁻³, T_e = 50 eV, and T_i = 100 eV at each end cell. A heat load of ∼2 MW/m² over areas of ∼1600 cm² could be produced at each end with 800 kW of ICRH power. These conditions would provide a unique capability for examining issues such as erosion/redeposition behavior, properties of redeposited materials, high recycling regimes, plasma edge operating limits for high-Z materials, and particle pumping efficiencies for limiter and divertor designs.