Experimental activity on the definition of acceptance criteria for the ITER divertor plasma facing components

Abstract Tens of thousands of armor/heat sink joints will be produced by the industry during the manufacturing of ITER divertor PFC, statistically, there is a probability that joints with defects be delivered. The purpose of this paper is to study the detection and evolution during operation of calibrated defects artificially implemented on samples, as an experimental basis for the definition of acceptance criteria for the bond armor/heat sink in the frame of industrial manufacturing conditions.It was found that current CFC monoblock design option was compatible with the heat loads specified at the lower part of the vertical target (up to 20 MW/m 2 ), including the presence of armor/heat sink defects (up to 50° extension for a location at 0° or 45°) detectable with NDE techniques developed in Europe (US, SATIR). The current W monoblock design appeared suitable for the upper part of the vertical target with defects extension up to 50°, but is not adapted for heat flux of 20 MW/m 2 . The studied W flat tile design proved to be compatible with fluxes of 5 MW/m 2 but unable to sustain cycling fluxes of 10 MW/m 2 .