Deuterium retention and erosion proprerties of nanostructured W coatings

One of the aims of the ITER Tokamak is to demonstrate the feasibility of a prolonged fusion power production based on a deuterium (D)- tritium (T) plasma. Plasma facing materials (PFMs) are a key issue for this objective. ITER will use tungsten (W) in the divertor baffle and other regions, which will be subject to high fluxes of energetic particles. Although, W is considered the most suitable material for the divertor region, owing to its high sputtering threshold and melting point, the possible retention of tritium in tungsten needs to be assessed for safety requirements. Due to the plasma interaction, W coatings in the divertor could have different morphologies and/or nanostructures. The present research activity aims to study different nanostructured W coatings exposed to high-flux D ion to evaluate the hydrogen retention properties.