Virtually collisionless magnetic mirror-trapped energetic ion populations often partially stabilize internally driven magnetohydrodynamic disturbances in the magnetosphere and in toroidal laboratory plasma devices such as the tokamak. This results in less frequent but dangerously enlarged plasma reorganization. unique to the toroidal magnetic configuration are confined 'circulating' energetic particles that are not mirror trapped. Here we show that a newly discovered effect from hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic theory has been exploited in sophisticated phase space engineering techniques for controlling stability in the tokamak. These theoretical predictions have been confirmed, and the technique successfully applied in the Joint European Torus. manipulation of auxiliary ion heating systems can create an asymmetry in the distribution of energetic circulating ions in the velocity orientated along magnetic field lines. We show the first experiments in which large sawtooth collapses have been controlled by this technique, and neoclassical tearing modes avoided, in high-performance reactor-relevant plasmas.
The energy spectrum of the neutron emission from beam-target reactions in fusion plasmas at the Joint European Torus (JET) has been investigated. Different beam energies as well as injection angles were used. Both measurements and simulations of the energy spectrum were done. The measurements were made with the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR. Simulations of the neutron spectrum were based on first principle calculations of neutral beam deposition profiles and the fast ion slowing down in the plasma using the code NUBEAM, which is a module of the TRANSP package. The shape of the neutron energy spectrum was seen to vary significantly depending on the energy of the beams as well as the injection angle and the deposition profile in the plasma. Cross validations of the measured and modeled neutron energy spectra where made, showing a good agreement for all investigated scenarios.
Here we demonstrate a comprehensive comparison of collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurements with steady-state Monte Carlo simulations performed with the ASCOT and VENUS codes. The measurements were taken at a location on the magnetic axis as well as at an off-axis location, using two projection directions at each location. The simulations agree with the measurements on-axis, but for the off-axis geometries discrepancies are observed for both projection directions. For the near perpendicular projection direction with respect to the magnetic field, the discrepancies between measurement and simulations can be explained by uncertainty in plasma parameters. However, the discrepancies between measurement and simulations for the more parallel projection direction cannot be explained solely by uncertainties in plasma parameters. Here anomalous fast ion transport is a possible explanation for the discrepancy.
A detailed description of the 14 MeV neutron emission in plasmas heated by neutral beam injection has been carried out by coupling Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron emission spectrum with TRANSP modelling of the beam ion energy distributions. The model is used to study tritium beam injection experiments of the JET trace tritium campaign for internal transport barrier (ITB) and H-mode discharges. For ITB discharges, the measured neutron emission spectrum is well described by modelling using as input the beam ion distribution calculated with TRANSP. For H mode discharges the neutron spectrum can be reproduced only if high energy tritons are lost from the plasma, suggesting the possible role of low frequency tearing modes on the beam ions. The presented results are of relevance for tritium beam transport studies in trace tritium experiments and, more generally, for deuterium and tritium transport studies in high power experiments using neutron emission spectroscopy.
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