skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The impact of lithium wall coatings on NSTX discharges and the engineering of the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX)

Journal Article · · Fusion Engineering and Design
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1] more »;  [1];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1] « less
  1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Max-Planck-Institut Für Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, Garching (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Recent experiments on the National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX) have shown the benefits of solid lithium coatings on carbon PFC's to diverted plasma performance, in both L- and H-mode confinement regimes. Better particle control, with decreased inductive flux consumption, and increased electron temperature, ion temperature, energy confinement time, and DD neutron rate were observed. Successive increases in lithium coverage resulted in the complete suppression of ELM activity in H-mode discharges. A liquid lithium divertor (LLD), which will employ the porous molybdenum surface developed for the LTX shell, is being installed on NSTX for the 2010 run period, and will provide comparisons between liquid walls in the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX) and liquid divertor targets in NSTX. LTX, which recently began operations at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, is the world's first confinement experiment with full liquid metal plasma-facing components (PFCs). All materials and construction techniques in LTX are compatible with liquid lithium. LTX employs an inner, heated, stainless steel-faced liner or shell, which will be lithium-coated. In order to ensure that lithium adheres to the shell, it is designed to operate at up to 500–600 °C to promote wetting of the stainless by the lithium, providing the first hot wall in a tokamak to operate at reactor-relevant temperatures. The engineering of LTX will be discussed.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Contributing Organization:
NSTX Research Team; LTX Research Team
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; AC02-09CH11466
OSTI ID:
1898290
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-418592; 380382; TRN: US2310869
Journal Information:
Fusion Engineering and Design, Vol. 85, Issue 7-9; ISSN 0920-3796
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (16)

Performance projections for the lithium tokamak experiment (LTX) journal April 2009
New capabilities and results for the National Spherical Torus Experiment journal July 2006
Li-CPS limiter in tokamak T-11M journal April 2003
The effect of lithium surface coatings on plasma performance in the National Spherical Torus Experiment journal May 2008
Transition to ELM-free improved H-mode by lithium deposition on NSTX graphite divertor surfaces journal June 2009
Impact of lithium-coated walls on plasma performance in the TJ-II stellarator journal June 2009
Equilibrium properties of spherical torus plasmas in NSTX journal November 2001
Exploration of spherical torus physics in the NSTX device journal March 2000
Edge-Localized-Mode Suppression through Density-Profile Modification with Lithium-Wall Coatings in the National Spherical Torus Experiment journal August 2009
First experiments with lithium limiter on FTU journal June 2007
Development of NSTX particle control techniques journal March 2005
Plasma response to lithium-coated plasma-facing components in the National Spherical Torus Experiment journal November 2009
Observations concerning the injection of a lithium aerosol into the edge of TFTR discharges journal December 2001
Enhanced Energy Confinement and Performance in a Low-Recycling Tokamak journal August 2006
Effect of lithium PFC coatings on NSTX density control journal June 2007
Low recycling and high power density handling physics in the Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade with lithium plasma-facing components journal May 2007

Similar Records

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
lithium
spherical tokamak
plasma facing components