Demonstrating improved confinement of energetic ions is one of the key goals of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. In the past campaigns, measuring confined fast ions has proven to be challenging. Future deuterium campaigns would open up the option of using fusion-produced neutrons to indirectly observe confined fast ions. There are two neutron populations: 2.45 MeV neutrons from thermonuclear and beam-target fusion, and 14.1 MeV neutrons from DT reactions between tritium fusion products and bulk deuterium. The 14.1 MeV neutron signal can be measured using a scintillating fiber neutron detector, whereas the overall neutron rate is monitored by common radiation safety detectors, for instance fission chambers. The fusion rates are dependent on the slowing-down distribution of the deuterium and tritium ions, which in turn depend on the magnetic configuration via fast ion orbits. In this work, we investigate the effect of magnetic configuration on neutron production rates in W7-X. The neutral beam injection, beam and triton slowing-down distributions, and the fusion reactivity are simulated with the ASCOT suite of codes. The results indicate that the magnetic configuration has only a small effect on the production of 2.45 MeV neutrons from DD fusion and, particularly, on the 14.1 MeV neutron production rates. Despite triton losses of up to 50 %, the amount of 14.1 MeV neutrons produced might be sufficient for a time-resolved detection using a scintillating fiber detector, although only in high-performance discharges.

After completing the main construction phase of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and successfully commissioning the device, first plasma operation started at the end of 2015. Integral commissioning of plasma start-up and operation using electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and an extensive set of plasma diagnostics have been completed, allowing initial physics studies during the first operational campaign. Both in helium and hydrogen, plasma breakdown was easily achieved. Gaining experience with plasma vessel conditioning, discharge lengths could be extended gradually. Eventually, discharges lasted up to 6 s, reaching an injected energy of 4 MJ, which is twice the limit originally agreed for the limiter configuration employed during the first operational campaign. At power levels of 4 MW central electron densities reached 3  ×  1019 m−3, central electron temperatures reached values of 7 keV and ion temperatures reached just above 2 keV. Important physics studies during this first operational phase include a first assessment of power balance and energy confinement, ECRH power deposition experiments, 2nd harmonic O-mode ECRH using multi-pass absorption, and current drive experiments using electron cyclotron current drive. As in many plasma discharges the electron temperature exceeds the ion temperature significantly, these plasmas are governed by core electron root confinement showing a strong positive electric field in the plasma centre.

It is shown that a considerable improvement in the global gyrokinetic electromagnetic simulations can be achieved by a slight modification of the simulation scheme. The new scheme is verified, simulating a Toroidal Alfv\'en Eigenmode in tokamak geometry at low perpendicular mode numbers, the so-called "MHD limit". Also, an electromagnetic drift mode has been successfully simulated in a stellarator.Comment: Paper submitted for publicatio

A new approach to electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations based on modified gyrokinetic theory is described. The method is validated using a particle-in-cell code. The Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmode at low perpendicular mode numbers, the so-called "MHD limit", has been successfully simulated using this method.

The internal kink mode is an important plasma instability responsible for a broad class of undesirable phenomena in tokamaks, including the sawtooth cycle and fishbones. To predict and discover ways to mitigate this behaviour in current and future devices, numerical simulations are necessary. The internal kink mode can be modelled by reduced magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Fishbone modes are an inherently kinetic and non-linear phenomenon based on the n = 1 Energetic Particle Mode (EPM), and have been studied using hybrid codes that combine a reduced MHD bulk plasma model with a kinetic treatment of fast ions. In this work, linear simulations are presented using a hybrid model which couples a fluid treatment of electrons with a gyrokinetic treatment of both bulk and fast ions. Studies of the internal kink mode in geometry relevant to large tokamak experiments are presented and the effect of gyrokinetic ions is considered. Interaction of the kink with gyrokinetic fast ions is also considered, including the destabilisation of the linear n = 1 EPM underlying the fishbone.