The tests of liquid metals (Ga, Li) as plasma facing components in T-3M and T-11M tokamaks

The experimental study of liquid metals (Ga, Li) as tokamak Plasma Facing Component (PFC) was undertaken in Russian T-3M and T-11M tokamaks (Ip ≤ 100 k A, BT ≈ 1 T). In T-3M droplet stream and film flow Ga limiters were tested. In T-11M the experiments with Li capillary pore systems (CPS) as rail limiter for investigation of real Li losses in tokamak boundary condition were performed. It was shown, that a liquid metal (Ga, Li) PFC can be used in tokamak as droplet and CPS structures. The main channel of lithium erosion looks like, as ion sputtering. The motion towards the tokamak-reactor with Li PFC seems possible and has no serious physical obstacles.