Impact of potential narrow SOL heat flux on H-mode access in ITER

The paper presents results of a first analysis of the divertor performance during the L-H transition in ITER. The integrated model consists of the SOLPS4.3 code suite for the SOL and divertor, and the ASTRA code for the core and pedestal regions. The results of SOLPS4.3 are parametrized and used as the boundary conditions for ASTRA, ensuring a consistent description of the plasma core and the edge. Boundary conditions switch from those for wide (L-mode) to narrow (H-mode) SOL once the transition criterion is met. The results show that, for conditions for which a full-power operational space with acceptable power loading of the targets exists, a transition from the initial L-mode operation to H-mode can be found for the same assumptions, i.e. the full-power H-mode regime is accessible.