A brief summary of tungsten technology development in Korea

Abstract

A review of tungsten technology development in Korea is briefly given. According to the upgrade plan of Korea superconducting tokamak advanced research (KSTAR) tokamak associated with Korean fusion energy R&D program, graphite plasma-facing components will be replaced with tungsten-based ones to handle the high-peak heat load caused by an increase of heating power up to 26 MW. Brazing technique to bond tungsten was developed and tungsten blocks were manufactured. Blocks were installed at the central divertor in KSTAR and exposed to high heat flux. Under high heat flux and long-pulse discharge, tungsten blocks were severely damaged. Molten tungsten materials show movements towards the high field side, which is j×B direction. The COMSOL ® modeling described the melting event quantitatively well. The failure of a water cooling system with a metal wall environment during a long-pulse plasma operation is very critical.