912 research outputs found
Novel inferences of ionisation & recombination for particle/power balance during detached discharges using deuterium Balmer line spectroscopy
The physics of divertor detachment is determined by divertor power, particle
and momentum balance. This work provides a novel analysis technique of the
Balmer line series to obtain a full particle/power balance measurement of the
divertor. This supplies new information to understand what controls the
divertor target ion flux during detachment.
Atomic deuterium excitation emission is separated from recombination
quantitatively using Balmer series line ratios. This enables analysing those
two components individually, providing ionisation/recombination source/sinks
and hydrogenic power loss measurements. Probabilistic Monte Carlo techniques
were employed to obtain full error propagation - eventually resulting in
probability density functions for each output variable. Both local and overall
particle and power balance in the divertor are then obtained. These techniques
and their assumptions have been verified by comparing the analysed synthetic
diagnostic 'measurements' obtained from SOLPS simulation results for the same
discharge. Power/particle balance measurements have been obtained during
attached and detached conditions on the TCV tokamak.Comment: The analysis results of this paper were formerly in arXiv:1810.0496
Hydrogenic retention with high-Z plasma facing surfaces in Alcator C-Mod
The retention of deuterium (D) fuel in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak is studied using a new 'static' gas balance method. C-Mod solely employs high-Z molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) for its plasma facing materials, with intermittent application of thin boron (B) films. The primarily Mo surfaces are found to retain large fractions, similar to 20-50%, of the D-2 gas fuelled per quiescent discharge, regardless of whether the Mo surfaces are cleaned of, or partially covered by, B films. Several experiments and calculations show that it is improbable that B retains significant fractions of the fuel. Rather, retention occurs in Mo and W surfaces through ion bombardment, implantation and diffusion to trap sites. Roughly 1% D of the incident ion fluence, Phi(D), to surfaces is retained, and with no indication of the retention rate decreasing after 25 s of integrated plasma exposure. The magnitude of retention is significantly larger than that extrapolated from the results of laboratory studies for either Mo or W. The high levels of D/Mo in the near surface, measured directly post-campaign (similar to 0.01) in tiles and inferred from gas balance, are consistent with trapping sites for fuel retention in the Mo being created, or expanded, by high D atom densities in the near surface which arise as a result of high incident ion fluxes. Differences between C-Mod and laboratory retention results may be due to such factors as the multiply ionized B ions incident on the surface directly creating traps, the condition of Mo (impurities, annealing) and the high-flux densities in the C-Mod divertor which are similar to ITER, but 10-100x those used in laboratory studies. Disruptions produce rapid heating of the surfaces, releasing trapped hydrogenic species into the vessel for recovery. The measurements of the large amount of gas released in disruptions are consistent with the analysis of tiles removed from the vessel post-campaign-the campaign-integrated retention is very low, of order 1000x less than that observed in a single, non-disruptive discharge
Modeling the power flow in normal conductor-insulator-superconductor junctions
Normal conductor-insulator-superconductor (NIS) junctions promise to be interesting for x-ray and phonon sensing applications, in particular due to the expected self-cooling of the N electrode by the tunneling current. Such cooling would enable the operation of the active element of the sensor below the cryostat temperature and at a correspondingly higher sensitivity. It would also allow the use of MS junctions as microcoolers. At present, this cooling has not been realized in large area junctions (suitable for a number of detector applications). In this article, we discuss a detailed modeling of the heat flow in such junctions; we show how the heat flow into the normal electrode by quasiparticle back-tunneling and phonon absorption from quasiparticle pair recombination can overcompensate the cooling power. This provides a microscopic explanation of the self-heating effects we observe in our large area NIS junctions. The model suggests a number of possible solutions
A portable shield for a neutron howitzer used for instructional and research purposes
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.05.011Neutron howitzers are routinely used in universities to activate samples for instructional laboratory experiments on radioactivity. They are also a convenient source of neutrons and gammas for research purposes, but they must be used with caution. This paper describes the modeling, design, construction, and testing of a portable, economical shield for a 1.0 Curie neutron howitzer. The Monte Carlo N Particle Transport Code (MCNP5) has been used to model the 239PuBe source and the howitzer and to design the external neutron and gamma shield
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