Nuclear fusion could offer clean, abundant energy. However, managing the power exhausted from the core fusion plasma towards the reactor wall remains a major challenge. This is compounded in emerging compact reactor designs promising more cost-effective pathways towards commercial fusion energy. Alternative Divertor Configurations (ADCs) are a potential solution. In this work, we demonstrate exhaust control in ADCs, employing a novel method to diagnose the neutral gas buffer, which shields the target. Our work on the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak Upgrade shows that ADCs tackle key risks and uncertainties for fusion energy. Their highly reduced sensitivity to perturbations enables active exhaust control in otherwise unfeasible situations and facilitates an increased passive absorption of transients, which would otherwise damage the divertor. We observe a strong decoupling of each divertor from other reactor regions, enabling near-independent control of the divertors and core plasma. Our work showcases the real-world benefits of ADCs for effective heat load management in fusion power reactors.

Exhausting power from the hot fusion core to the plasma-facing components is one fusion energy’s biggest challenges. The MAST Upgrade tokamak uniquely integrates strong containment of neutrals within the exhaust area (divertor) with extreme divertor shaping capability. By systematically altering the divertor shape, this study shows the strongest evidence to date to our knowledge that long-legged divertors with a high magnetic field gradient (total flux expansion) deliver key power exhaust benefits without adversely impacting the hot fusion core. These benefits are already achieved with relatively modest geometry adjustments that are more feasible to integrate in reactor designs. Benefits include reduced target heat loads and improved access to, and stability of, a neutral gas buffer that ‘shields’ the target and enhances power exhaust (detachment). Analysis and model comparisons shows these benefits are obtained by combining multiple shaping aspects: long-legged divertors have expanded plasma-neutral interaction volume that drive reductions in particle and power loads, while total flux expansion enhances detachment access and stability. Containing the neutrals in the exhaust area with physical structures further augments these shaping benefits. These results demonstrate strategic variation in the divertor geometry and magnetic topology is a potential solution to one of fusion’s power exhaust challenge. (Figure presented.)

Post-disruption runaway electron (RE) kinetic energy K and pitch angle sin ϑ are critical parameters for determining resulting first wall material damage during wall strikes, but are very challenging to measure experimentally. During the final loss instability, confined RE K and sin ϑ are reconstructed during center-post wall strikes for both high impurity (high-Z) and low impurity (low-Z) plasmas by combining soft x-ray, hard x-ray, synchrotron emission, and total radiated power measurements. Deconfined (wall impacting) RE sin ϑ is then reconstructed for these shots by using time-decay analysis of infra-red imaging. Additionally, deconfined RE K and sin ϑ are reconstructed for a low-Z downward loss shot by analyzing resulting damage to a sacrificial graphite dome limiter. The damage analysis uses multi-step modeling simulating plasma instability, RE loss orbits, energy deposition, and finally material expansion (MARS-F, KORC, GEANT-4, and finally COMSOL). Overall, mean kinetic energies are found to be in the range ⟨ K ⟩ ≈ 3 − 4 MeV for confined REs. KORC simulations indicate that the final loss instability process does not change individual RE kinetic energy K. Confined RE pitch angles are found to be fairly low initially pre-instability, ⟨ sin ϑ ⟩ ≈ 0.1 − 0.2 , but appear to increase roughly 2 × , to ⟨ sin ϑ ⟩ ≈ 0.3 − 0.4 for both confined and deconfined REs during instability onset in the low-Z case; this increase is not observed in the high-Z case.

On the basis of several recent breakthroughs in fusion research, many activities have been launched around the world to develop fusion power plants on the fastest possible time scale. In this context, high-fidelity simulations of the plasma behavior on large supercomputers provide one of the main pathways to accelerating progress by guiding crucial design decisions. When it comes to determining the energy confinement time of a magnetic confinement fusion device, which is a key quantity of interest, gyrokinetic turbulence simulations are considered the approach of choice – but the question, whether they are really able to reliably predict the plasma behavior is still open. The present study addresses this important issue by means of careful comparisons between state-of-the-art gyrokinetic turbulence simulations with the GENE code and experimental observations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak for an unprecedented number of simultaneous plasma observables.

The thermo-mechanical response of an ATJ graphite sample to controlled runaway electron (RE) dissipation, realized in DIII-D, is modelled with a novel work-flow that features the RE orbit code KORC, the Monte Carlo particle transport code Geant4 and the finite element multiphysics software COMSOL. KORC provides the RE striking positions and momenta, Geant4 calculates the volumetric energy deposition and COMSOL simulates the thermoelastic response. Brittle failure is predicted according to the maximum normal stress criterion, which is suitable for ATJ graphite owing to its linear elastic behavior up to fracture and its isotropic mechanical properties. Measurements of the conducted energy, damage topology, explosion timing and blown-off material volume, impose a number of empirical constraints that suffice to distinguish between different RE impact scenarios and to identify RE parameters which provide the best match to the observations.

To mitigate the impact of technical delays, provide a more rationalized approach to the safety demonstration and move forward as rapidly as possible to a reactor relevant materials choice, the ITER Organization embarked in 2023 on a significant re-baselining exercise. Central to this strategy is the elimination of beryllium (Be) first wall (FW) armour in favour of tungsten (W), placing plasma-wall interaction (PWI) centre stage of this new proposal. The switch to W comes with a modified Research Plan in which a first “Start of Research Operation” (SRO) campaign will use an inertially cooled, temporary FW, allowing experience to be gained with disruption mitigation without risking damage to the complex water-cooled panels to be installed for later DT operation. Conservative assessments of the W wall source, coupled with integrated modelling of W pedestal and core transport, demonstrate that the elimination of Be presents only a low risk to the achievement of the principal ITER Q = 10 DT burning plasma target. Primarily to reduce oxygen contamination in the limiter start-up phase, known to be a potential issue for current ramp-up on W surfaces, a conventional diborane-based glow discharge boronization system is included in the re-baseline. First-of-a-kind modelling of the boronization glow is used to provide the physics specification for this system. Erosion simulations accounting for the 3D wall geometry provide estimates both of the lifetime of boron (B) wall coatings and the subsequent B migration to remote areas, providing support to a simple evaluation which concludes that boronization, if it were to be used frequently, would dominate fuel retention in an all-W ITER. Boundary plasma (SOLPS-ITER) and integrated core–edge (JINTRAC) simulations, including W erosion and transport, clearly indicate the tendency for a self-regulating W sputter source in limiter configurations and highlight the importance of on-axis electron cyclotron power deposition to prevent W core accumulation in the early current ramp phase. These predicted trends are found experimentally in dedicated W limiter start-up experiments on the EAST tokamak. The SOLPS-ITER runs are used to formulate W source boundary conditions for 1.5D DINA code scenario design simulations which demonstrate that flattop durations of ∼100 s should be possible in hydrogen L-modes at nominal field and current (Ip = 15 MA, BT = 5.3 T) which are one of the principal SRO targets. Runaway electrons (RE) are considered to be a key threat to the integrity of the final, actively cooled FW panels. New simulations of RE deposition and subsequent thermal transport in W under conservative assumptions for the impact energy and spatial distribution, conclude that there is a strong argument to increase the W armour thickness in key FW areas to improve margins against cooling channel interface damage in the early DT operation phases when new RE seeds will be experienced for the first time.

Since the publication of the review Progress in the ITER Physics Basis (PIPB) in 2007, significant progress has been made in understanding the processes at the plasma-material interface. This review, part of the ITPA Nuclear Fusion Special Issue On the Path to Burning Plasma Operation, presents these developments, focusing on key areas such as the physics of plasma exhaust, plasma-material interactions, and the properties of plasma-facing materials and their evolution under plasma exposure. The coordinated efforts of the ITPA Topical Group on Scrape-Off Layer and Divertor Physics (DivSOL) have been instrumental in identifying and addressing critical research and development issues in numerous collaborative experimental and modelling projects.

A computational fluid dynamics model of ELM-induced tungsten melt flow across a gap between misaligned plasma-facing components is validated against data from dedicated leading-edge exposures in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. The macroscopic behavior of the simulated flow in terms of stability and attachment to the underlying solid surface agrees with experimental observations and is consistent with simplified dimensionless criteria based on the balance between fluid inertia and surface tension. Quantitative predictions of the total mass deposited on the downstream side of the gap, along with the characteristic extent of such deposits, are also shown to match the empirical evidence. Furthermore, the accumulation of re-solidified material due to consecutive melt events is found to progressively smooth the gap edge, which promotes better overall flow attachment as well as the growth of overhangs whose dimensions can eventually exceed the gap width.