Specialists at NSU and the G.I. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS (INP SB RAS) have developed technology to conduct optical diagnostics of the tungsten surface that makes it possible for real-time observation of cracking from powerful pulsed heating. This method helps predict this metal鈥檚 reaction under a thermal load to the first wall of the vacuum chamber in an ITER thermonuclear reactor. The results of this research are published in the journal 鈥淧hysica Scripta鈥�.