AbstractThe need of high heat flux components (HHFCs) is significant in the fusion community. Such elements are required for divertor or limiter applications. The optimisation between performance and safety involved a large investment on design criteria. Based on the actual Tore Supra (TS) feedback and the recent work for Composant Interne Et Limiteur (CIEL) project with the newly developed component for Toroidal Pump Limiter (TPL), a review of the major thermal and mechanical design criteria is detailed in this paper.