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== Liquid Metal Technology ==  
== Liquid Metal Technology ==  
Various components of [[ITER]] and [[IFMIF]], and eventually future fusion reactors, will be based on the use of liquid metals, so that the associated technology is increasingly relevant. Much is still to be learned about their application as refrigerants, tritium generators, or neutron reproducers or moderators under extreme conditions. The experimental area will dispose of various liquid lithium loops, connected to the electron accelerator. The main goals are the study of the free surface of liquid metals when subjected to internal energy deposition, and the compatibility of structural materials with the liquid metal in the presence of radiation. In addition, it will be possible to study the influence of magnetic fields on the cited phenomena and to develop methods for the purification of the liquid metal, lithium enrichment, tritium extraction, and safety protocols for handling liquid metal.
Inside a fusion reactor, some materials will not be subjected only to radiation, but also to enormous heat loads in the case of plasma disruptions. In view of this, both: i) stationary conditions due to the intrinsic reactor properties: high density, low temperature and high power and ii) violent transient events (called ELMs in plasma physics literature) must be reproduced. Therefore, it is essential to dispose of a device (which it will be called “plasma gun”) to study plasma-material interactions simultaneously in steady state and transient regimes, thereby allowing an analysis of the modification of the materials and their properties in fusion reactors.  
The mentioned plasma gun would consist of two main elements: i) a linear plasma device capable of generating hydrogen plasmas with steady state particle fluxes of up to 1024 m-2s-1 (i.e., of the order of the expected ITER fluxes) and impact energies in the range of 1-10 eV, and ii) a device of the quasi-stationary plasma accelerators (QSPA) type, providing pulses lasting 0.1-1.0 ms and energy fluxes in the 0.1-20 MJm-2 range, in a longitudinal magnetic field of the order of 1 T or greater.
These devices are connected by a common vacuum chamber, allowing the exchange of samples, and their simultaneous or consecutive exposure to the steady state and transient plasma flows under controlled conditions. Both devices will operate with hydrogen, deuterium, helium, and argon.


== Characterization Techniques ==
== Characterization Techniques ==
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