A future fusion reactor is expected to have all-metal plasma facing materials (PFM) to ensure low erosion rates, low tritium retention and stability against high neutron fluences. As a consequence, intrinsic radiation losses in the plasma edge and divertor are low in comparison to devices with carbon PFMs. To avoid localized overheating in the divertor, intrinsic low-Z and medium-Z impurities have to be inserted into the plasma to convert a major part of the power flux into radiation and to facilitate partial divertor detachment. For burning plasma conditions in ITER, which operates not far above the L-H threshold power, a high divertor radiation level will be mandatory to avoid thermal overload of divertor components. Moreover, in a prototype reactor, DEMO, a high main plasma radiation level will be required in addition for dissipation of the much higher alpha heating power. For divertor plasma conditions in present day tokamaks and in ITER, nitrogen appears most suitable regarding its radiative characteristics. If elevated main chamber radiation is desired as well, argon is the best candidate for simulataneous enhancement of core and divertor radiation, provided sufficient divertor compression can be obtained. The parameter P sep /R, the power flux through the separatrix normalized by the major radius, is suggested as a suitable scaling (for a given electron density) for the extrapolation of present day divertor conditions to larger devices. The scaling for main chamber radiation from small to large devices has a higher, more favourable dependence of about P rad,main /R 2 . Krypton provides the smallest fuel dilution for DEMO conditions, but has a more centrally peaked radiation profile compared to argon. For investigation of the different effects of main chamber and divertor radiation and for optimization of their distribution, a double radiative feedback system has been implemented in ASDEX Upgrade. About half the ITER/DEMO values of P sep /R have been achieved so far, and close to DEMO values of P rad,main /R 2 , albeit at lower P sep /R. Further increase of this parameter may be achieved by increase of the neutral pressure or improved divertor geometry.

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Demonstrating the production of net electricity and operating with a closed fuel-cycle remain unarguably the crucial steps towards the exploitation of fusion power. These are the aims of a demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO) proposed to be built after ITER. This paper briefly describes the DEMO design options that are being considered in Europe for the current conceptual design studies as part of the Roadmap to Fusion Electricity Horizon 2020. These are not intended to represent fixed and exclusive design choices but rather 'proxies' of possible plant design options to be used to identify generic design/material issues that need to be resolved in future fusion reactor systems. The materials nuclear design requirements and the effects of radiation damage are briefly analysed with emphasis on a pulsed 'low extrapolation' system, which is being used for the initial design integration studies, based as far as possible on mature technologies and reliable regimes of operation (to be extrapolated from the ITER experience), and on the use of materials suitable for the expected level of neutron fluence. The main technical issues arising from the plasma and nuclear loads and the effects of radiation damage particularly on the structural and heat sink materials of the vessel and in-vessel components are critically discussed. The need to establish realistic target performance and a development schedule for near-term electricity production tends to favour more conservative technology choices. The readiness of the technical (physics and technology) assumptions that are being made is expected to be an important factor for the selection of the technical features of the device.

Abstract. Operation of DEMO in comparison to ITER will be significantly more demanding, as various additional limitations of physical and technical nature have to be respected. In particular a set of extremely restrictive boundary conditions on divertor operation during and in between ELMs will have to be respected. It is of high importance to describe these limitations in order to consider them as early as possible in the ongoing development of the DEMO concept design. This paper extrapolates the existing physics basis on power and particle exhaust to DEMO.In phases between ELMs or with mitigated ELMs surface overheating and W sputtering pose challenging boundary conditions. For attached divertor conditions at 90% total radiation fraction a peak power density of about 15MW/m 2 convected or radiated to the outer divertor is estimated. As this clearly exceeds the tolerable limit, some degree of divertor detachment is regarded as essential for the operation of DEMO. A loss of detachment with a peak power density of more than 30MW/m 2 can not be tolerated for more than a second before the divertor would suffer from a destructive event. The combination of the limitations on the peak power flux density and W sputtering rate necessitates divertor temperatures less than 4eV.For uncontrolled ELMs sizes in the order of 100MJ are estimated. Results on ELM broadening from JET suggest that in DEMO an energy density limit of 0.5MJ/m 2 per ELM is exceeded by a factor of about 8 for a large range of relative ELM sizes. This highlights the necessity of a reactor-relevant ELM control technique for DEMO, which is capable of reducing the maximum size of the energy loss per ELM to the divertor by more than an order of magnitude without a strong reduction of confinement.

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In the European fusion roadmap, ITER is followed by a demonstration fusion power reactor (DEMO), for which a conceptual design is under development. This paper reports the first results of a coherent effort to develop the relevant physics knowledge for that (DEMO Physics Basis), carried out by European experts. The program currently includes investigations in the areas of scenario modeling, transport, MHD, heating & current drive, fast particles, plasma wall interaction and disruptions.

A large scale program to develop a conceptual design for a demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO) has been initiated in Europe. Central elements are the baseline design points, which are developed by system codes. The assessment of the credibility of these design points is often hampered by missing information. The main physics and technology content of the central European system codes have been published (Kovari et al 2014 Fusion Eng. Des. 89 3054–69, 2016 Fusion Eng. Des. 104 9–20, Reux et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 073011). In addition, this publication discusses key input parameters for the pulsed and conservative design option EU DEMO1 2015 and provides justifications for the parameter choices. In this context several DEMO physics gaps are identified, which need to be addressed in the future to reduce the uncertainty in predicting the performance of the device. Also the sensitivities of net electric power and pulse duration to variations of the input parameters are investigated. The most extreme sensitivity is found for the elongation ( Δ κ 95 = 10 % corresponds to Δ P e l , n e t = 125 % ).

This paper describes the progress of the DEMO design and R&D activities in Europe. The focus is on a systems engineering and design integration approach, which is recognized to be essential from an early stage to identify and address the engineering and operational challenges, and the requirements for technology and physics R&D. We present some of the preliminary design choices/sensitivity studies to explore and narrow down the design space and identify/select attractive design points. We also discuss some of the initial results of work being executed in the EUROfusion Consortium by a geographically distributed project team involving many EU laboratories, universities, and industries in Europe. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V