David Ruzic and CPMI win DOE Materials Grant

June 26, 2012

Today it was announced that CPMI’s David Ruzic and hie liquid lithium group has been awarded a grant under the Department of Energies Materials solicitation. The grant is to study Thermoelectric-Driven Liquid-Lithium Plasma-Facing structures (TELS) which will bring together the work being done in SLiDE and DEVeX with Davids LiMIT concept.

SLiDE (Solid/Liquid Lithium Divertor Experiment) is a current project that uses an electron beam to test liquid metal plasma facing components (PFCs) under a constant heat flux similar to those found in Fusion devices. This is the primary facility used to test the Lithium/Metal Infused Trenches (LiMIT) concept currently.

The Divertor Erosion and Vapor shielding eXperiment (DEVeX) facility is able to simulate the types of plasma’s as seen in a fusion reactor when there is an instability such as an Edge Localized mode. It also looks at lithium’s ability to shield a surface from the power flux that is incident on the surface.

TELS will bring both of these machines together to be able to test PFC components under not only steady state power fluxes as seen in fusion devices but at the same time test how they behave when there is a major pulsed disruption incident on the surface or an instability such as an Edge Localized mode (ELM). This is a vital study for fusion to make it viable since its is critical that PFC componetes can survive the harsh enviroments that are present inside a fusion reactor. TELS will go a long way in answering many of the question that scientists have about lithium’s viability as a liquid metal PFC and testing different design for liquid PFCs as well as have the ability to test other materials of interest for the first wall and divertor in a fusion reactor. The grant funding is for three years.

I am sure that you all will warmly congratulate David and his team of Post-docs students and research engineer that have worked hard to get this proposal funded.