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A new Infrared diagnostic has been developed by CEA-IRFM and installed in the WEST tokamak to measure surface temperature of the actively cooled W-monoblocks components as foreseen for the ITER Divertor, with a very high spatial resolution of 100 μm. The goals are to investigate the effects of the shaping of these components on the heat load deposition pattern, the evolution of pre-damaged components specifically introduced in WEST, the behavior of the leading edges regarding the assembling tolerances between adjacent monoblocks, and finally to contribute to the specification assessment of the ITER divertor units. In WEST, each Plasma Facing Unit is composed of 35 W-monoblocks of individual surface of 28 × 12 mm. To analyze heat load pattern and phenomena on such tiny surfaces, the leading edges and in the narrow gaps between monoblocks (400–500 μm), a 100 μm spatial resolution is required. Then, a Very High spatial Resolution (VHR) infrared diagnostic has been specially developed at CEA-IRFM. The VHR operates at 1.7 μm wavelength to take advantage of the dynamic of the signal for the temperature range (400–3600 °C). The VHR infrared diagnostic is now operational above the divertor sector made of actively cooled W-monoblocks and graphite inertial components with W coating. This paper gives a description of the diagnostic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An imaging spectrometer using a sapphire prism as dispersing element has been conceived at Tore Supra for the spectral range of 1–4 μm. It measures simultaneously at various wavelengths the temperature on distributed high heat-flux elements under plasma impact with 36 optical fibers, four of which are ZrF4 fibers. It employs an InSb focal plane array detector (256*320 pixels) behind a silicon filter and a ZnS window yielding a dynamic range of 200–1500 °C with 20 ms temporal resolution. The fiber transmission and the spatial variation of gain and background of the camera are calibrated using a light source with integrating sphere. With a blackbody source one determines the nonlinearity of the average gain and controls its stability during operation. The spectral dispersion of about 24 nm/pixel is determined with interference filters and controlled with a spectral lamp. The measurements at various wavelengths allow to determine the temperature distribution in the field of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma Facing Components (PFC) temperature measurement is mandatory to ensure safe high power and long pulse tokamak operation. IR thermography systems which are widely used in magnetic fusions devices become challenged with the choice of tungsten as a PFC material in the ITER tokamak, mainly due to emissivity uncertainties and reflection issues in a hot environment. Embedded temperature measurements are foreseen to cross-check the IR thermography measurements. Fiber Bragg grating sensors are potentially of great interest for this application because they are immune to electromagnetic interference and allow the measurement of a large number of temperature spots on a single fiber. Four optical fiber temperature sensing probes, each of them including 11 regenerated fiber Bragg gratings equally spaced by 12.5 mm (equivalent to one ITER-like tungsten monoblock), have been specifically designed and manufactured for the WEST project (W-tungsten Environment and Steady State Tokamak). The four probes are embedded in W-coated graphite components at two different distances from the surface, 3.5 mm and 7 mm, to cover a wide range of temperatures up to 900 °C. This paper addresses the design and integration issues and the qualification and performance assessment performed in the laboratory. It also shows the first measurements of this new diagnostic achieved in a tokamak environment during baking of the machine and during early diverted plasma exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Unique 0.1 mm/pixel IR thermography diagnostic for plasma-wall interaction studies. • Improved accuracy and reliability on field of view positioning. • Operational on WEST tokamak since 2020. • Diagnostic is accurate to the monoblock. The Very High spatial Resolution (VHR) infrared thermography diagnostic developed by CEA-IRFM is installed in the WEST tokamak to measure surface temperature of the actively cooled W-monoblocks (MB) of the Plasma Facing Units (PFUs), which are similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) ones. It is a major diagnostic to investigate the behavior of PFU during experimentation thanks to its very high spatial resolution (0.1 mm / pixel), movable field of view (FoV) and the wide-range temperature measurement. In particular, it can study the evolution of monoblocks mounted in the tokamak, the influence of the shaping of these components submitted to high heat load and the behavior of the leading edges regarding the assembling tolerances between adjacent monoblocks. Finally, such diagnostic directly contributes to the specification assessment of the ITER divertor units. This diagnostic was operational during the 2019 WEST experimentation and its enhanced design for the 2020 WEST experimentation campaign. In order to monitor 30 × 12 mm monoblocks temperature, the VHR IR diagnostic is able to move its narrow FoV (64 × 51 mm) to specific targets on the observable divertor area (360 × 420 mm). Position and focus steering are achieved through motor-controlled mirrors and lenses operated by a dedicated Labview application on a remote unit. Mirror positioning occurs between pulses under normal WEST operation conditions, and can withstand thermal radiation and disruptions during pulses. Repeatability, hysteresis, mechanical components reliability are critical parameters to provide accurate positioning (<1 mm) of the FoV. The tuning and calibration of these actuators in accordance with WEST environment is crucial to guarantee the best position of the FoV and optical performances. This paper gives the FoV positioning implementation details and performance of the VHR in WEST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the long-pulse high-confinement discharges in tokamaks, the equilibrium of plasma requires a contact with the first wall materials. The heat flux resulting from this interaction is of the order of 10 MW/m 2 for steady state conditions and up to 20 MW/m 2 for transient phases. The monitoring on surface temperatures of the plasma facing components (PFCs) is a major concern to ensure safe operation and to optimize performances of experimental operations on large fusion facilities. Furthermore, this measurement is also required to study the physics associated to the plasma material interactions and the heat flux deposition process. In tokamaks, infrared (IR) thermography systems are routinely used to monitor the surface temperature of the PFCs. This measurement requires an accurate knowledge of the surface emissivity. However, and particularly for metallic materials such as tungsten, this emissivity value can vary over a wide range with both the surface condition and the temperature itself, which makes instantaneous measurement challenging. In this context, the multi-spectral infrared method appears as a very promising alternative solution. Indeed, the system has the advantage to carry out a non-intrusive measurement on thermal radiation while evaluating surface temperature without requiring a mandatory surface emissivity measurement. In this paper, a conceptual design for the multi-spectral infrared thermography is proposed. The numerical study of the multi-channel system based on the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) nonlinear curve fitting is applied. The numerical results presented in this paper demonstrate the design allows for measurements over a large temperature range with a relative error of less than 10%. Furthermore, laboratory experiments have been performed from 200 °C to 740 °C to confirm the feasibility for temperature measurements on stainless steel and tungsten. In these experiments, the unfolding results from the multi-channel detection provide good performance on temperature measurement, which supports our numerical evaluation and demonstrates the potential feasibility for metallic surface high temperature measurement with this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ITER (www.iter.org) will take advantage of tungsten (W) actively cooled plasma facing units (PFUs) in the lower divertor. These PFUs will receive a steady state plasma heat flux of 10 MW m−2 and up to 20 MW m−2 in slow transients, pushing these components to their limit. For machine protection reasons and for the study of the plasma wall interactions, temperature measurements are foreseen with mid wave infra-red (MWIR: 3–5 μm) thermography systems to cover most of the ITER chamber, including the divertor (tungsten material) and first wall (beryllium material) [1]. Absolute temperature measurements from 70 °C and the cooling temperature of the PFUs, up to 3500 °C (W melting temperature at 3422 °C), are considered. Those measurements require knowledge of the emissivity of the tungsten PFU surfaces as a function of the temperature and wavelength used for the IR monochrome thermography system. This paper summarizes the emissivity measurements performed on tungsten surfaces in high heat flux test beds and the WEST tokamak [2] and uses the experimental emissivity values to compute the expected uncertainties in ITER (ΔT/T) using monochrome and bicolor thermography techniques. The results show that the monochrome technique is not able to fulfill the ΔT/T < 10% requirement, while the bicolor technique is able to reduce the temperature uncertainty below 10%. Laboratory bicolor thermography measurements using a filter wheel (including six MWIR interference filters) have been successfully performed up to 830 °C with temperature uncertainty ΔT/T < 3%. In the WEST tokamak, the two dimensions emissivity map is varying by a factor of five within 27 cm along a PFU, from 0.13 to 0.65, showing that the monochrome IR thermography will have difficulties staying within the ITER requirements ΔT/T < 10% from 70 °C up to 3500 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WEST platform aims at testing ITER like W divertor targets in an integrated tokamak environment. To operate long plasma discharges, IR thermography is required to monitor the main plasma facing components by means of real time surface temperature measurements, while providing essential data for various physics studies. To monitor the new divertor targets, the WEST IR thermography protection system has been deeply renewed, to match the new tokamak configuration. It consists of 7 endoscopes located in upper ports viewing the whole lower divertor and the 5 heating devices. Electronic devices and computers allow data storage of ≈3 Gb/s IR images and real time video frames processing at 50 Hz rate, to ensure the protection of the main plasma facing components during plasma discharges by a feedback control of the power injected by the heating systems. Each endoscope provides 2 views covering 2 divertor sectors of 30° (toroidally) and 1 view of a heating antenna. Each optical line is composed of a tight entrance window followed by a head objective which forms an image transported through the endoscope by a series of 4 optical relays and mirrors, up to a camera objective. Finally, 12 IR cameras specially developed for WEST environment capture the thermographic data, at the wavelength of 3.9 μm, with a 640 × 512 pixels frame size. The paper describes the design constraints and diagnostic technologies: optics, mechanics, electronics, hard & software, cameras. Tvhe laboratory characterization procedures (Modulation Transfer Function, slit response, calibration), and the measurement performance results are given (spatial resolution, temperature threshold). Finally, first results obtained during experimental campaigns in WEST are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We presented the WEST full tungsten actively cooled divertor, mentioning its relevance with the ITER one. • Main features including key elements related to the large-scale production, the reception tests, and the installation into the WEST tokamak are reported. • Main manufacturing issues as well as the reception strategy, in particular the handling of non-conformities, are highlighted. • Results related to the assessment of heat removal capability by IR-thermography and high heat flux test are discussed. The WEST (W - for tungsten - Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) platform aims to support the ITER tungsten divertor technology, manufacturing and long pulse operation. For this purpose, the Tore Supra tokamak has been deeply modified (mainly the installation of a lower and upper divertor coil structure), enabling a restart in 2016 and a first phase of operation (Phase I) until the end of 2020. Following this first phase, a limited number of actively cooled PFUs (Plasma Facing Units), based on ITER divertor technology, were industrially produced and implemented into the WEST vacuum vessel. The second phase of operation (Phase II) will be with a full actively cooled divertor. The first WEST experimental campaign with this new configuration (Phase II) started in 2022. This paper reports on the key elements related to the large-scale industrial production, the reception tests, and the installation of the ITER-like divertor components (including embedded instrumentation) into the WEST tokamak. Main manufacturing issues as well as the reception strategy, in particular the handling of non-conformities, are highlighted, mentioning its relevance with ITER divertor specifications. Results related to the assessment of heat removal capability by IR thermography examination and high heat flux test, as well as the He-leak tightness control are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The WEST (Tungsten Environment for Steady State Tokamak) platform aims at testing ITER like divertor targets in an integrated tokamak environment, to minimize risks for procurement and operation. After 4 years of construction, WEST is now operational, with the first plasma breakdown achieved in December 2016. To operate long plasma discharge in WEST, infrared thermography is a key device, which enables a safe operation by means of a real time surface temperature monitoring, while providing essential data for various physics studies. For WEST, the IR thermography system has been deeply renewed, to match with the new tokamak configuration, and to fulfil the new measurement requirements. It consists of a set of 5 different diagnostics: 1) 7 endoscopes located in upper ports viewing the whole lower divertor and the 5 heating devices 2) a tangential endoscope located in a median port, providing a wide angle view of the vacuum vessel, and in particular of the upper divertor and first wall protections 3) a submillimetre resolution view on the divertor strike points from an upper port endoscope 4) 2 additional views of the divertor and of the heating devices. The paper describes the new IR diagnostics configuration (spatial covering, IR cameras, optics, data processing hardware and software), the main design options, manufacturing and installation issues, and some measurement performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the course of the development of a concept for a spectrally resolving thermography diagnostic for the ITER divertor using optical fibres experimental development work has been carried out in three different areas. Firstly ZrF4 fibres and hollow fibres (silica capillaries with internal AG/AgJ coating) were tested in a Co60 irradiation facility under γ irradiation up to doses of 5kGy and 27kGy, respectively. The ZrF4 fibres suffered more radiation induced degradation (>1db/m) then the hollow fibres (0–0.4db/m). Secondly multi-colour pyroreflectometry is being developed towards tokamak applicability. The emissivity and temperature of tungsten samples were measured in the range of 700–1500°C. The angular working range for off normal observation of the method was 20–30°. The working distance of the method has been be increased from cm to the m range. Finally, encouraging preliminary results have been obtained concerning the application of pulsed and modulated active thermography. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]