Scenario development for the observation of alpha-driven instabilities in JET DT plasmas

R. J Dumont (1) , J. Mailloux (2) , V. Aslanyan (3) , M. Baruzzo (4) , C. D. Challis (2) , I. Coffey (5) , A. Czarnecka (6) , E. Delabie (7) , J. Eriksson (8) , J. Faustin (9) , J. Ferreira (10) , M. Fitzgerald (2) , J. Garcia (1) , L. Giacomelli (11) , C. Giroud (12) , N. Hawkes (2) , Ph. Jacquet (2) , E. Joffrin (13, 1) , T. Johnson (14) , D. Keeling (2) , D. King (2) , V. Kiptily (2) , B. Lomanowski (15) , E. Lerche (16) , M. Mantsinen (17, 18) , L. Meneses (10) , S. Menmuir (2) , K. Mc Clements (2) , S. Moradi (2) , F. Nabais (10) , M. Nocente (11) , A. Patel (2) , H. Patten (9) , P. Puglia (9) , R. Scannell (2) , S. Sharapov (2) , E. R Solano (19) , M. Tsalas (20) , P. Vallejos (14) , H. Weisen (9) , D. Challis

1 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique
2 EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association
3 MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4 RFX - Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom/ENEA sulla Fusione
5 ARC - Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast]
6 IPPLM - Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion [Warsaw]
7 ORNL - Oak Ridge National Laboratory [Oak Ridge]
8 Dept of Physics and Astronomy
9 EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
10 IPFN - Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear [Lisboa]
11 UNIMIB - Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca = University of Milano-Bicocca
12 LCBPT - UMR 8601 - Laboratoire de Chimie et de Biochimie Pharmacologiques et Toxicologiques
13 CEA Cadarache
14 Fusion Plasma Physics [Stockholm]
15 Aalto University School of Science and Technology [Aalto, Finland]
16 LPP ERM KMS - Laboratoire de physique des plasmas de l'ERM, Laboratorium voor plasmafysica van de KMS
17 BSC-CNS - Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputacion
18 ICREA - Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats = Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies
19 CIEMAT - EURATOM CIEMAT
20 DIFFER - Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research [Nieuwegein]

In DT plasmas, Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAEs) can be made unstable by the alpha particles resulting from fusion reactions, and may induce a significant redistribution of fast ions. Recent experiments have been conducted in JET deuterium plasmas in order to prepare scenarios aimed at observing alpha-driven TAEs in a future JET DT campaign. Discharges at low density, large core temperatures associated with the presence of Internal Transport Barriers and characterised by good energetic ion confinement have been performed. ICRH has been used in the hydrogen minority heating regime to probe the TAE stability. The consequent presence of MeV ions has resulted in the observation of TAEs in many instances. The impact of several ‡ See the author list of " X. Litaudon et al 2017 Nucl. Fusion 57 102001 " Scenario development for the observation of alpha-driven instabilities in JET DT plasmas2 key parameters on TAE stability could therefore be studied experimentally. Modeling taking into account NBI and ICRH fast ions shows good agreement with the measured neutron rates, and has allowed predictions for DT plasmas to be performed.

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

R. J Dumont, J. Mailloux, V. Aslanyan, M. Baruzzo, C. D. Challis, et al.. Scenario development for the observation of alpha-driven instabilities in JET DT plasmas. Nuclear Fusion, 2018, 58, pp.082005. ⟨10.1088/1741-4326/aab1bb⟩. ⟨cea-01829932⟩