Saturation in deuterium retention of CFC graphite targets exposed to beryllium-seeded plasmas on PISCES-B

ITER strike-plates are foreseen to be of carbon-fiber-composite (CFC). In this study the CFC bulk deuterium retention in ITER-relevant conditions is investigated. DMS 701 (Dunlop) CFC targets were exposed to plasma in PISCES-B divertor plasma simulator. Samples were exposed to both pure deuterium plasma and berylliumseeded plasma at high fluences (up to 10 27 m 2 ) and high surface temperature (1070 K). The deuterium contents of the exposed samples have been measured using both thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS) during baking at 1400 K and ion beam Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA). The total deuterium inventory has been obtained from TDS while NRA measured the deuterium depth distribution. In the analysed fluence range at target temperature of 1070 K, no fluence dependence was observed. The measured released deuterium is 1.4·10 21 m 2 . In the case of target exposure with beryllium-seeded plasma no change in the released amount of deuterium was found. The deuterium concentration inside the samples is almost constant until the probed depth of >>10 µm, except in the first 1 µm surface layer, where it is 5 times higher than in the bulk. No C erosion/redeposition was observed in the Be-seeded plasma cases. The measured retention, applied to 50 m 2 of ITER CFC surface, would imply a tritium saturated value of 0.3 gT, much lower than the ITER safety limit of 350 g.