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Title: FY2014 FES (Fusion Energy Sciences) Theory & Simulation Performance Target, Final Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1272459· OSTI ID:1272459
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
  6. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)

We report here the work done for the FY14 OFES Theory Performance Target as given below: "Understanding alpha particle confinement in ITER, the world's first burning plasma experiment, is a key priority for the fusion program. In FY 2014, determine linear instability trends and thresholds of energetic particle-driven shear Alfven eigenmodes in ITER for a range of parameters and profiles using a set of complementary simulation models (gyrokinetic, hybrid, and gyrofluid). Carry out initial nonlinear simulations to assess the effects of the unstable modes on energetic particle transport". In the past year (FY14), a systematic study of the alpha-driven Alfven modes in ITER has been carried out jointly by researchers from six institutions involving seven codes including the transport simulation code TRANSP (R. Budny and F. Poli, PPPL), three gyrokinetic codes: GEM (Y. Chen, Univ. of Colorado), GTC (J. McClenaghan, Z. Lin, UCI), and GYRO (E. Bass, R. Waltz, UCSD/GA), the hybrid code M3D-K (G.Y. Fu, PPPL), the gyro-fluid code TAEFL (D. Spong, ORNL), and the linear kinetic stability code NOVA-K (N. Gorelenkov, PPPL). A range of ITER parameters and profiles are specified by TRANSP simulation of a hybrid scenario case and a steady-state scenario case. Based on the specified ITER equilibria linear stability calculations are done to determine the stability boundary of alpha-driven high-n TAEs using the five initial value codes (GEM, GTC, GYRO, M3D-K, and TAEFL) and the kinetic stability code (NOVA-K). Both the effects of alpha particles and beam ions have been considered. Finally, the effects of the unstable modes on energetic particle transport have been explored using GEM and M3D-K.

Research Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC) (United States). Fusion Energy Sciences
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
OSTI ID:
1272459
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English