Advances in the physics studies for the JT-60SA tokamak exploitation and research plan

JT-60SA, the largest tokamak that will operate before ITER, has been designed and built jointly by Japan and Europe, and is due to start operation in 2020. Its main missions are to support ITER exploitation and to contribute to the demonstration fusion reactor machine and scenario design. Peculiar properties of JT-60SA are its capability to produce long-pulse, high-), and highly shaped plasmas. The preparation of the JT-60SA Research Plan, plasma scenarios, and exploitation are producing physics results that are not only relevant to future JT-60SA experiments, but often constitute original contributions to plasma physics and fusion research. Results of this kind are presented in this paper, in particular in the areas of fast ion physics, high-beta plasma properties and control, and non-linear edge localised mode stability studies.

Overview of results and possibilities for fast particle research on JET

Olivier Sauter, Duccio Testa

The large physical size of the JET tokamak, its heating systems and diagnostics, and its capability to operate with full deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas, including high-power tritium neutral beam injection (NBI), give it unique possibilities in fast particle research in fusion plasmas. These have already been used to generate significant (2-3 MW level) power in fusion a-particles in the 1997 D-T campaign. Recent JET experiments have concentrated on two important scenarios of relevance to next-step tokamak devices: the ELMy H-mode plasmas and plasmas with strong internal transport barriers (ITBs). The achieved progress will help in preparation for a possible second D-T experiment on JET. Fast particle studies have also been carried out recently using ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH)-accelerated particles and external-excitation methods to study Alfven eigenmodes (AEs). Looking towards the future, the capability of JET will be enhanced by upgrades to the NBI system, ICRH system and various diagnostics. Results of the first JET D-T experiment (DTE1) form a basis on which to elaborate a second D-T experiment (DTE2) which could be proposed after these enhancements. The alpha-physics part of this programme would be divided between the investigation of alpha-particle confinement, heating and loss processes in the 'integrated scenarios' (where the discharge is as close as possible to an ITER-relevant scenario), and dedicated 'alpha-physics' experiments, with specially prepared plasmas. In ELMy H-mode plasmas the fusion performance could roach Q(=P-fusion/P-input) of similar to0.33 at the highest combined heating powers, corresponding to similar to 6x10(-4), allowing a test of the margins of TAE stability in quasi-steady-state conditions. The integrated-scenario fast particle programme could concentrate on the instabilities and heating in plasma regimes with strong steady-state ITBs, with expected Q values similar to0.58 and similar to2x10(-3), demonstrating the compatibility of these operating scenarios with alpha-effects. Excitation of TAEs by alpha-particles in the plasma core could also be studied in such integrated scenarios. An issue which will receive attention is the confinement of MeV energy ions in the centre of ITB plasmas with strongly reversed shear, where the low current density in the centre may lead to the alpha-particles entering loss orbits. In preparation for a D-T campaign, studies of triton burn-up in deuterium ITB plasmas will begin in the 2002 experimental campaigns. Special 'afterglow' experiments to measure TAEs after the termination of the (stabilizing) NBI have already been explored in JET deuterium ITB scenarios and would be planned for DTE2. It is intended to develop special versions of ITB plasmas with dominant ion heating which would maximize the sensitivity to degradation of alpha-heating effects.

2002

Chapter 4: Power and particle control

Richard Pitts

Progress, since the ITER Physics Basis publication (ITER Physics Basis Editors et al 1999 Nucl. Fusion 39 2137-2664), in understanding the processes that will determine the properties of the plasma edge and its interaction with material elements in ITER is described. Experimental areas where significant progress has taken place are energy transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) in particular of the anomalous transport scaling, particle transport in the SOL that plays a major role in the interaction of diverted plasmas with the main-chamber material elements, edge localized mode (ELM) energy deposition on material elements and the transport mechanism for the ELM energy from the main plasma to the plasma facing components, the physics of plasma detachment and neutral dynamics including the edge density profile structure and the control of plasma particle content and He removal, the erosion of low- and high-Z materials in fusion devices, their transport to the core plasma and their migration at the plasma edge including the formation of mixed materials, the processes determining the size and location of the retention of tritium in fusion devices and methods to remove it and the processes determining the efficiency of the various fuelling methods as well as their development towards the ITER requirements. This experimental progress has been accompanied by the development of modelling tools for the physical processes at the edge plasma and plasma-materials interaction and the further validation of these models by comparing their predictions with the new experimental results. Progress in the modelling development and validation has been mostly concentrated in the following areas: refinement in the predictions for ITER with plasma edge modelling codes by inclusion of detailed geometrical features of the divertor and the introduction of physical effects, which can play a major role in determining the divertor parameters at the divertor for ITER conditions such as hydrogen radiation transport and neutral-neutral collisions, modelling of the ion orbits at the plasma edge, which can play a role in determining power deposition at the divertor target, models for plasma-materials and plasma dynamics interaction during ELMs and disruptions, models for the transport of impurities at the plasma edge to describe the core contamination by impurities and the migration of eroded materials at the edge plasma and its associated tritium retention and models for the turbulent processes that determine the anomalous transport of energy and particles across the SOL. The implications for the expected performance of the reference regimes in ITER, the operation of the ITER device and the lifetime of the plasma facing materials are discussed.

2007

Overview of results and possibilities for fast particle research on JET

Olivier Sauter, Duccio Testa

2002

Chapter 4: Power and particle control

Richard Pitts

2007