The morphology of beryllium coatings on the Inconel inner wall cladding tiles after JET-ILW campaigns was determined. The focus was on: (i) fuel retention and its share in the overall fuel inventory; (ii) the change of the layer structure and composition. The study is motivated in the view of planned D-T operation in JET. Four tiles were examined: the initial not exposed; one exposed to two campaigns (ILW1-2) and two facing the plasma during ILW1-3. As determined with ion beam and microscopy methods, the initial Be layer (9.0 mu m thick) contained up to 4-5 at.% of impurities, mainly H, O, C, Ni. In the exposed tiles, the impurity content increases to 14-26 at.% (up to 20 at.% O, 1.7 at.% C, 1.0 at.% N, 1.3 at.% Ni and under 0.1 at.% W). The surface composition indicates gettering of O and a long-term retention of N. The Be thickness on the tile exposed to ILW1-2 was between 7.6 and 9.7 mu m, thus indicating erosion in some areas, while the thickness after ILW1-3 increased to 10-12 mu m. The D content was in the range 1.2-3.4x10(17) cm(-2) after ILW1-2 and 3.2-10x10(17) cm(-2) after ILW1-3 on most of the analyzed area, but in the limiter shadow values up to 58 x10(17) cm(-2) were measured. Taking into account the total area of the Be-coated inner wall cladding tiles, the lower limit of D inventory amounts to 5.3x10(22) atoms corresponding to about 176 mg, i.e. somewhat greater than the amount determined on Be limiters. The formation and spalling-off of Be-O particles was revealed.

An assessment of the tritium (T) inventory in plasma facing components (PFC) during JET T and deuterium-tritium (DT) operations is presented based on the most comprehensive ex situ fuel retention data set on JET PFCs from the 2015-2016 ILW3 operating period is presented. The global fuel retention is 4.19 x 10(23) D atoms, 0.19% of injected fuel. The inner divertor remains the region of highest fuel retention (46.5%). The T inventory in PFCs at the end of JET operations is calculated as 7.48 x 10(22) atoms and is informative for accountancy, clean-up efficacy and waste liability assessments. The T accumulation rate at the upper inner divertor during JET DT operations has been used to assess the requirements and frequency of operation of a new laser induced desorption diagnostic to be installed on JET for the final DT experiments in 2023.

Plasma edge cooling, ion cyclotron wall conditioning and disruption mitigation techniques involve massive gas injection (by puffs or pellets) to the torus. A certain fraction remains in plasma-facing components (PFC) due to co-deposition and implantation. An uncontrolled release/desorption of such retained species affects the stability of plasma operation. The aim of this work was to determine the lateral and depth distribution of noble (3He, 4He, Ne, Ar), seeded (N2, Ne, Ar) and tracer gases (15N, 18O) in PFC retrieved from the JET tokamak with the ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW) after three experimental campaigns (ILW-1, ILW-2, ILW-3). Results regarding the retention of those gases are shown as well as a comparison to the deuterium retention in the studied areas. Heavy ion elastic recoil detection analysis was used, being the only technique capable of detection and quantitative assessment of all elements, especially low-Z isotopes. Helium was found on the divertor Tile 5, locally up to 44.1015 3He cm-2 and 12.1015 4He cm-2, and on the limiters as well. Neon was found in two positions on the limiters, with up to 10.1015 Ne cm-2 and the 15N tracer on Be limiters exposed to ILW-3. A correlation of N retention with the N seeding rates for each campaign has also been found.

This work was carried out to identify sources of errors, uncertainties and discrepancies in studies of fuel retention in wall components from the JET tokamak using methods based on thermal desorption. Parallel aims were to establish good practices in measurements and to unify procedures in data handling. A comprehensive program designed for deuterium quantification comprised the definition and preparation of two types of materials (samples of JET limiter Be tiles and deuterium-containing targets produced in the laboratory by magnetron-assisted deposition), their pre-characterization, quantitative analyses of the desorption products in three different thermal desorption spectroscopy systems and a detailed critical comparison of the results. Tritium levels were also determined by several techniques in samples from JET and in tritiated targets manufactured specifically for this research program. Facilities available for studies of Be- and tritium-contaminated materials from JET are presented. Apparatus development, future research options and challenges are discussed.

Polycrystalline (PC) and single crystal (SC) molybdenum mirrors were irradiated with 98Mo+, 1H+, 4He+, 11B+ and 184W+. Energies were chosen to impact the optically active region (up to 30 nm deep) of Mo mirrors. Some surfaces were coated by magnetron sputtering either with B or W films 4–65 nm thick. The overall objective was to simulate the neutron-induced damage and transmutation (H, He), and the impact of H, He, B, W on the optical performance of test mirrors, and on fuel retention. In parallel, a set of PC Mo mirrors irradiated with 1.6 MeV 98Mo3+ to a damage of 2 dpa and 20 dpa was installed in the JET tokamak for exposure during deuterium-tritium campaigns. Data from spectrophotometric, ion beam and microscopy techniques reveal: (i) the irradiation decreased specular reflectivity, whereby the differences between PC and SC in reflectivity are very small, (ii) He is retained in bubbles within 25–30 nm of the subsurface layer in all irradiated materials, (iii) W, either deposited or implanted, decreases reflectivity, but the strongest reflectivity degradation is caused by B deposition. Laboratory studies show the correlation of damage and H retention. Several cycles of W deposition and its removal from SC-Mo mirrors by plasma-assisted methods were also performed.