Prof. Ratynskaia and Dr. Tolias receive VR funding to model dust and droplets in ITER
The three-year project led by Prof. S. Ratynskaia and Dr. P. Tolias aims to achieve predictive modelling of metallic dust and droplets in the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER).
Although dust hardly poses any risk in current fusion devices, the very high heat fluxes and long discharge durations expected in ITER are a game changer. These metallic grains and droplets can not only contaminate the core plasma with heavy impurities, they can also accumulate as toxic or radioactive material that can be released in case of an accident, and compromise the resistance of plasma-facing components to thermo-mechanical stresses.
The project will explore and quantify the underlying physics of ITER-relevant dust aspects that cannot be treated adequately with the current dust dynamics models.