MEPhI: System for collecting and analyzing dust in a thermonuclear reactor

2025: Development of a complex for dust collection and analysis in the internal chamber of the ITER fusion reactor

The Department of Plasma Physics of the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies of NRNU MEPhI has developed a diagnostic complex for collecting and analyzing dust in the inner chamber of the international thermonuclear reactor ITER. The university announced this on April 8, 2025.

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Фото: MEPhI

During the operation of the thermonuclear reactor, due to the destruction of its internal walls facing the hot plasma, microscopic metal particles will form, which will settle in the inner zone of the reactor, forming a layer of dust.

The diagnostic complex created at MEPhI will take a small sample of dust in the reactor chamber, then take it 20 meters away and conduct primary tests. First of all, the amount and weight of the collected metal dust will be studied, and most importantly - how many hydrogen isotopes - deuterium and tritium turned out to be in the collected sample. According to scientists, dust, due to its large specific surface, will accumulate hydrogen isotopes, and the amount of tritium in the reactor - the main "raw material" of the thermonuclear reaction - is strictly regulated. The resulting dust can act as a tritium battery, which requires control.

The dust collecting device is a small cylindrical capsule, called a dust collecting head, into which a disposable dust collecting container is inserted at the front, like a case. The capsule is pushed through special pipes by a flexible titanium tube, which the developers call an endoscope.

Dust is collected using static electricity. Inside the dust collection head there are electrodes to which a high voltage is applied. Dust particles, charging, are attracted to these electrodes and fall into the dust collection container.

In the design of ITER there will be special pipes on which the dust collector head will ride.

In 2026, the MEPhI product should undergo a procedure called Preliminary Design Review in ITER, that is, a preliminary review of the project.