Motion and lifetime of dust grains in a tokamak plasma

The temperature evolution of a dust grain in a tokamak plasma is studied computationally. Heating times and evaporation times for scrape-off layer (SOL) plasmas are estimated, leading to estimates for the lifetime of micron-sized dust grains ranging between fractions of a second and tens of microseconds depending on plasma conditions. Grains are found to travel significant distances into a tokamak plasma. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.