Divertor impurity radiation is considered as one possibility to reduce the target. heat load in ITER-grade devices to acceptable values. The radiative power fraction in the divertor is, however, in principle limited and under standard high recycling conditions too small to achieve this goal. In this paper we discuss the possible increase of the maximum radiative fraction by a ''neutral cushion'' that provides a pressure drop in the divertor by ion-neutral interaction. A pressure drop by about a factor of ten would allow the radiative fraction to increase sufficiently to satisfy constraints on ITER target loads. Experimental and theoretical evidence has been given in the literature for gas targets with the required properties. Supersonic flow conditions at the target are also included in tile discussion, but are found to be insufficient, by themselves, to provide the required effect.