Erosion, screening, and migration of tungsten in the JET divertor

The erosion of tungsten (W), induced by the bombardment of plasma and impurity particles, determines the lifetime of plasma-facing components as well as impacting on plasma performance by the influx of W into the confined region. The screening of W by the divertor and the transport of W in the plasma determines largely the W content in the plasma core, but the W source strength itself has a vital impact on this process. The JET tokamak experiment provides access to a large set of W erosion-determining parameters and permits a detailed description of the W source in the divertor closest to the ITER one: (i) effective sputtering yields and fluxes as function of impact energy of intrinsic (Be,…