JET has operated with divertors of differing geometries since 1994. Impurities accumulated in the inner leg of all the divertors, and operation of the first (MkI) divertor with beryllium tiles demonstrated that most are eroded from the main chamber walls and swept along the scrape-off layer to the inner divertor. Carbon from these deposits is locally transported to shadowed regions such as the inner louvres, where, for example, most of the tritium was trapped during the Deuterium-Tritium Experiment (DTE1). Factors affecting these transport processes (e.g. temperature) are important for ITER, but are not well understood.