Coated boron layers by boronization and a real-time boron coating using impurity powder dropper in LHD

Abstract

In Large Helical Device (LHD), diborane (B2H6) is used as a standard boron source for boronization, which is assisted by helium glow discharges. In 2019, a new Impurity Powder Dropper (IPD) system has been installed and is under evaluation as a real-time wall conditioning technique. In LHD), which is a large size heliotron device, an additional helium (He) glow discharge cleaning (GDC) after boronization has been operated for a reduction of hydrogen recycling from coated boron layers, and this operational time of 3 h was determined by spectroscopic data during glow discharges. A flat hydrogen profile is obtained on the top surface of coated boron on the specimen exposed to boronization, the result suggests a reduction of hydrogen at the top surface by He-GDC. Trapped oxygen in coated boron was obtained by boronization, and the coated boron, which has boron-oxide, on the first wall by B-IPD was also shown. Considering the difference in coating areas between B2H6 boronization and B-IPD operation, it would be most effective to use the IPD and B2H6 boronization coating together for optimized wall conditioning.