Modeling the lithium loop in a liquid metal pool-type divertor

Considering that solutions for the steady-state power exhaust problem in future fusion reactors (e.g. DEMO) are not provided by present experiments and it is uncertain if they will be provided by ITER, because the expected heat fluxes, as well as the level of neutron irradiation, will be much higher, dedicated work packages are being devoted to this problem within EUROfusion and even a dedicated facility (the Divertor Tokamak Test − DTT) is being proposed in Italy. Among the possible options, a liquid metal (LM) divertor is being considered. The present work aims at developing a simple model of the LM loop in the case of a pool-type divertor, including the most important physical phenomena and allowing to roughly determine the operating range of the system, in terms of surface temperatures and vapor pressures. This work therefore sets a preliminary basis for the conceptual design of a LM divertor for the DTT facility. The model includes the incoming plasma heat load and a basic treatment of the interactions of the Li vapor with the plasma. The reduction of the Li vapor efflux due to ionization by the plasma is also taken into account. The model includes two chambers: a first divertor box, the evaporation chamber (EC), is open towards a second divertor box, the differential chamber (DC), which is in turn connected to the main plasma chamber (MC). The model is used to study the effectiveness of the LM vapor in radiating isotropically the parallel heat flux incoming in the divertor. The results indicate that the presence of the DC allows a significant reduction of the Li vapor efflux towards the MC, which in turn would imply a lower contamination of the core plasma.