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Migration of plasma erosion products in plasma facilities is studied experimentally and numerically within the framework of modeling transport of plasma-facing materials in the diagnostic ducts of fusion devices. Material transport simulation is discussed for two cases of low and high background neutral gas pressures. Monte Carlo software KITe was used to simulate transport at a neutral gas background pressure 0.1–0.5 Pa—typical during steady-state tokamak operation and during pressure pulses caused by edge localized modes (ELMs). The simulation approach was implemented to describe experiments at the MAGNUM-PSI facility. Fluid dynamic code FLUENT is used to simulate transport during pressure surges as high as 1000 Pa, which can occur in the case of severe disruptions in tokamak plasma discharges, such as vertical displacement events (VDE) or accidental events. The hydrodynamic approach was verified in simulation of target sputtering in the QSPA plasma gun facility.

Hot ion mode was recently achieved at the Globus-M2 spherical tokamak when the toroidal magnetic field was as high as 0.9 T and plasma current 0.35 MA. The injection of two neutral beams with a total power of 0.7 MW and an energy of 30 keV into a plasma with major radius 0.36 m and minor radius 0.22 m (aspect ratio 1.6) made it possible to heat the plasma ions up to 4 keV, while electron density in the plasma center was as high as 8 × 1019 m−3. The achievement of high temperatures became possible due to the good thermal insulation of the plasma.

Leucosapphire (c-LS) structure and transmission in visible after surface treatment in 90%H2-10%N2 RF discharge are studied. According to AFM, the number of scratches of the mechanically polished surface decreased significantly after removal of about a 300 nm layer (exposure time of 12 h) under unchanged rms of roughness. According to TEM, a two-layer structure formed in the near-surface region consists of an outer 10 nm amorphous layer followed by a crystalline layer of 40-50 nm with a high defect density. The c-LS transmission in the angle of 400-1000 nm either slightly increased or remained unchanged. The demonstrated transmission stability during exposure in 90%H2-10%N2 RF discharge allows us to consider the plasma sputtering as a promising technique for cleaning contaminated windows protecting first mirror of divertor Thomson scattering being developed for ITER divertor Keywords: Leucosapphire, RF discharge, hydrogen, nitrogen, AFM, TEM, surface layer structure, visible transmission.

The work presents the results of the energy confinement study carried out on the compact spherical tokamak Globus-M2 with a toroidal magnetic field as high as 0.8 T. A reproducible and stable discharge was obtained with the average plasma density (5–10) × 1019 m−3. Despite the increase in the magnetic field, the neutral beam injection (NBI) led to clear and reproducible transition to the H-mode accompanied by a decrease in the turbulence level at the plasma edge. NBI allowed effectively heat the plasma: electron and ion temperatures in the plasma core exceeded 1 keV. Compared to the previous experiments carried out with a toroidal magnetic field as high as 0.4 T plasma total stored energy was increased by a factor of 4. The main reason or this phenomenon is a strong dependence of the energy confinement time on the toroidal magnetic field in the spherical tokamak. It was experimentally confirmed that such kind of dependence is valid for ST with magnetic field up to 0.8 T. It has also been shown that the enhancement of the energy confinement in Globus-M2 with collisionality decrease is associated with an improvement of both electron and ion thermal insulation.

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a nuclear fusion research and engineering project. It is supposed to be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials and operational regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity. Front (explored in this paper) and Back diagnostic racks are used as supporting structures of the so-called ITER Divertor Thomson Scattering (DTS) Diagnostic System that is created to measure plasma characteristics. They will be attached to the lower port walls (ITER ports are used to locate diagnostic equipment and its supporting structures) through the so-called Divertor Rails. The developed design of the Front (Diagnostic) Rack locking (e.g. Rack attachment to the rails mechanism) was analyzed in this research to be consistent with thermal stresses, electromagnetic and seismic loads taking into account some specific assembly and maintenance loads including preloading under installation. The analysis of the rack locking design's resistance to the mentioned loads should prove correspondence of the suggested common rack design with the structure integrity criterions. Construction strength under the most severe loading scenario was estimated in this research and appropriate conclusions were made. It was found out that the stress criterion was not fully satisfied, so a new rack locking design concept was proposed. Its main details are also described at the end of this article.