In-vessel components imaging systems: From the present experience towards ITER safe operation

2D surface temperature measurement of plasma facing components with modulated active pyrometry

In nuclear fusion devices, such as Tore Supra, the plasma facing components (PFC) are in carbon. Such components are exposed to very high heat flux and the surface temperature measurement is mandatory for the safety of the device and also for efficient plasma scenario development. Besides this measurement is essential to evaluate these heat fluxes for a better knowledge of the physics of plasma-wall interaction, it is also required to monitor the fatigue of PFCs. Infrared system (IR) is used to manage to measure surface temperature in real time. For carbon PFCs, the emissivity is high and known (ɛ ∼ 0.8), therefore the contribution of the reflected flux from environment and collected by the IR cameras can be neglected. However, the future tokamaks such as WEST and ITER will be equipped with PFCs in metal (W and Be/W, respectively) with low and variable emissivities (ɛ ∼ 0.1-0.4). Consequently, the reflected flux will contribute significantly in the collected flux by IR camera. The modulated active pyrometry, using a bicolor camera, proposed in this paper allows a 2D surface temperature measurement independently of the reflected fluxes and the emissivity. Experimental results with Tungsten sample are reported and compared with simultaneous measurement performed with classical pyrometry (monochromatic and bichromatic) with and without reflective flux demonstrating the efficiency of this method for surface temperature measurement independently of the reflected flux and the emissivity.

Defining the infrared systems for ITER

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor will have wide angle viewing systems and a divertor thermography diagnostic, which shall provide infrared coverage of the divertor and large parts of the first wall surfaces with spatial and temporal resolution adequate for operational purposes and higher resolved details of the divertor and other areas for physics investigations. We propose specifications for each system such that they jointly respond to the requirements. Risk analysis driven priorities for future work concern mirror degradation, interfaces with other diagnostics, radiation damage to refractive optics, reflections, and the development of calibration and measurement methods for varying optical and thermal target properties.

Development of a realistic photonic modeling for the evaluation of infrared reflections in the metallic environment of ITER

In nuclear fusion experiments, the plasma facing components are exposed to high heat fluxes and infrared (IR) imaging diagnostics are routinely used for surveying their surface temperature for preventing damages. However the future use of metallic components in the ITER tokamak adds complications in temperature estimation. Indeed, low and variable emissivity of the observed surface and the multiple reflections of the light coming from hot regions will have to be understood and then taken into account. In this paper, a realistic photonic modeling based on Monte Carlo ray-tracing codes is used to predict the global response of the complete IR survey system. This also includes the complex vessel geometry and the thermal and optical surface properties using the bidirectional reflectivity distribution function that models the photon-material interactions. The first results of this simulation applied to a reference torus are presented and are used as a benchmark to investigate the validity of the global model. Finally the most critical key model parameters in the reflected signals are identified and their contribution is discussed.