Simulation Study of an Extended Divertor Leg for Heat Control in the SlimCS DEMO Reactor

Power handling in the divertor is one of the most important issues for fusion tokamak reactor design. In this study, the effect of the divertor leg length on power handling in the SlimCS DEMO reactor is investigated for future divertor design. Simulation with the SONIC code suite shows enhancement of recycling in the outer divertor region due to effects of the long divertor leg and the deep V-shaped corner. As a result, the ion and electron temperature at the outer divertor significantly decreases. In addition, the peak of the Ar impurity radiation, which is located close to the outer divertor target in the standard divertor geometry, moves upstream. The former effect decreases the heat load to the outer divertor due to ion conduction and convection, while the latter reduces the heat load due to the impurity radiation. The peak of the total heat load on the outer divertor decreases by about 30 % (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)