Real-time feedback control of the impurity emission front in tokamak divertor plasmas

Long-pulse operation of a self-sustained fusion reactor using toroidal magnetic containment requires control over the content of alpha particles produced by D-T fusion reactions. On the one hand, MeV-class alpha particles must stay confined to heat the plasma. On the other hand, decelerated helium ash must be expelled before diluting the fusion fuel. Our kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic hybrid simulations of a large tokamak plasma confirm the existence of a parameter window where such energy-selective confinement can be accomplished by exploiting internal relaxation events known as `sawtooth crashes'. The physical picture -- consisting of a synergy between magnetic geometry, optimal crash duration and rapid particle motion -- is completed by clarifying the role played by magnetic drifts. Besides causing asymmetry between co- and counter-going particle populations, magnetic drifts determine the size of the confinement window by dictating where and how much `reconnection' occurs in particle orbit topology.Comment: Main article: 9 pages, 7 figures. Supplementary material: 9 pages, 15 figures. References: 3 pages. 2021 IAEA TCM EPPI Conferenc

Characterization of some modern scintillators recommended for use on large fusion facilities in γ-ray spectroscopy and tomographic measurements of γ-emission profiles

LaBr3:Ce,CeBr3 and GAGG:Ce scintillators were investigated and the determined characteristics were compared with those obtained for the well-known and widely used CsI:Tl and NaI:Tl crystals. All the detectors were of the same size of 10 × 10 × 5 mm3. The aim of this test study was to single out scintillation detectors most suitable for γ-ray spectrometry and γ-ray emission radial profile measurements in high-temperature plasma experiments. Decay time, energy resolution, non-proportionality and full energy peak detection efficiency ere measured for γ-ray energies up to 1770 keV. Due to their good energy resolution, short decay time and high detection efficiency for MeV gamma rays, LaBr3:Ce and CeBr3 scintillators are proposed as the best candidates for use especially under conditions of high count rates, which are expected in the forthcoming DT experiments

Numerical study of helium ash and fast particle dynamics in a sawtoothing tokamak plasma

A relaxation even known as “sawtooth crash” is simulated in a large tokamak plasma with monotonic safety factor close to unity. The domain and the time scale of the event are set to match observations. The simulation follows passive alpha particles with energies 35 keV-3.5 MeV, whose initial density peak is localized in the relaxing domain. While the 35 keV profile flattens, a synergy of multiple physical factors allows the 3.5 MeV profile to remain peaked, facilitating the use of benign sawtooth activity in a fusion reactor to expel helium ash while preserving good confinement of fast alphas.17th Technical Meeting on Energetic Particles and Theory of Plasma Instabilities in Magnetic Confinement Fusion (EPPI

Response of the imaging cameras to hard radiation during JET operation

The analysis of the radiation damage of imaging systems is based on all different types-of aiialoiue/digital cameras with uncooled as well as actively cooled image sensors in the VIS/NIR/MWIR spectral ranges. The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code has been used to determine the neutron fluence at different camera locations in JET. An explicit link between the sensor damage and the neutron fluence has been observed. Sensors show an increased dark-current and increased numbers of hot-pixels. Uncooled cameras must be replaced once per year after exposure to a neutron fluence of similar to 1.9-3.2 x 10(12)neutrons/cm(2). Such levels of fluence will be reached after approximate to 14-22 ELMy H-mode pulses during the future D-T campaign. Furthermore, dynamical noise seen as a random pattern of bright pixels was observed in the presence of hard radiation (neutrons and gammas). Failure of the digital electronics inside the cameras as well as of industrial controllers is observed beyond a neutron fluence of about similar to 4 x 10(9) neutrons/cm(2). The impact of hard radiation on the different types of electronics and possible application of cameras during future D-T campaign is discussed