Long-pulse (>10-s) operation of large tokamaks with high-power (>10-MW) heating and extensive external fueling will require correspondingly efficient particle exhaust for density control. A pump limiter can provide the needed exhaust capability by removing a small percentage of the particles, which would otherwise be recycled. Single pump limiter modules have been operated successfully on the Impurity Study Experiment-B, the Poloidal Divertor Experiment, TEXTOR, and the Princeton Large Torus. An axisymmetric pump limiter is now being installed and will be studied in TEXTOR. A third type of pump limiter is a system that consists of several modules and exhibits performance different from that of a single module. To take advantage of the flexibility of a modular pump limiter system in a high-power, long-pulse device, the power load must be distributed among a number of modules. Because each added module changes the performance of all the others, a set of design criteria must be defined for the overall limiter system. The design parameters for the modules are then determined from the system requirements for particle and power removal. Design criteria and parameters are presented, and the impact on module design of the state of the art in engineering technology is discussed. The relationships between modules are considered from the standpoint of flux coverage and shadowing effects. The results are applied to the Tore Supra tokamak. A preliminary conceptual design for the Tore Supra pump limiter system is discussed, and the design parameters of the limiter modules are presented.