Tritium removal by CO{sub 2} laser heating

Efficient techniques for rapid tritium removal will be necessary for ITER to meet its physics and engineering goals. One potential technique is transient surface heating by a scanning CO{sub 2} or Nd:Yag laser that would release tritium without the severe engineering difficulties of bulk heating of the vessel. The authors have modeled the heat propagation into a surface layer and find that a multi-kW/cm{sup 2} flux with an exposure time of order 10 ms is suitable to heat a 50 micron co-deposited layer to 1,000--2,000 degrees. Improved wall conditioning may be a significant side benefit. They identify remaining issues that need to be addressed experimentally