First experiments at the QSPA-Be plasma gun facility

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results on the erosion of beryllium under hydrogen plasma flow. Two samples made of two types of beryllium, TGP-56PS and S-65C, were exposed to plasma heat loads up to 1 MJ m−2 and a pulse duration of 0.5 ms at the QSPA-Be facility in Bochvar Institute, Russia. The melting threshold for both beryllium types was experimentally determined to be 0.5 MJ m−2. The dependence of the specific mass loss and erosion rate on pulse number for both beryllium types was measured. The possibility of generating radiation fluxes with parameters corresponding to mitigated ITER disruptions by means of plasma flow shock braking on a solid bar is shown.