Simulation studies of divertor detachment and critical power exhaust parameters for Japanese DEMO design

Abstract Handling of a large thermal power exhausted from the confined plasma is one of the most important issues for ITER and DEMO. A conventional divertor, which has the closed geometry similar to that of ITER and longer leg of 1.6 m, was proposed for the Japanese (JA) DEMO reactor (Rp/ap= 8.5/2.42 m). A radiative cooling scenario of Ar impurity seeding and the divertor performance have been demonstrated by SONIC simulation, in order to evaluate the power exhaust in JA-DEMO 2014 (primary design with Psep∼283MW) and JA-DEMO with higher plasma elongation (a revised design with Psep∼235MW). The divertor operation with the peak qtarget ≤ 10MWm-2 was determined in the low nesep of 2-3x1019 m-3 under the severe conditions of reducing radiation loss fraction, i.e. f*raddiv = (Pradsol+Praddiv)/Psep, and diffusion coefficients (χand D). The divertor geometry and reference key parameters (f*raddiv ∼0.8, χ =1 m2/s and D = 0.3 m2/s) were so far consistent with the power exhaust concepts in the nesep range, and the revised JA-DEMO design has advantages of wider nesep range and enough margin for the divertor operation. For either severe assumption of f*raddiv∼0.7 or χ and D to the half value, higher nesep operation was required for the primary design in order to control the peak qtarget ≤ 10MWm-2, i.e. the operation window was reduced. Applying the two severe assumptions, the divertor operation was difficult in the low nesep range.