Hydrogen–deuterium changeover experiments in a plasma‐wall interaction simulator

Hydrogen recycling from walls and limiters of tokamaks constitutes the major source of plasma particles after the initial few milliseconds of a plasma pulse. The physical processes involved in recycling are thus very important to the control of plasma density and composition. Isotope changeover experiments in the laboratory show that thermally activated processes such as recombination and diffusion play significant roles in recycling. These processes are important not only during the plasma pulse but also continue after the plasma pulse ends, thus the length of time between pulses, the wall temperature, and the vacuum pumping rate all influence changeover dynamics. This paper shows that for type 304 stainless steel walls changeover can range from ≳95% to