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Title: Improving fast-ion confinement in high-performance discharges by suppressing Alfvén eigenmodes

Journal Article · · Nuclear Fusion

Here, we show that the degradation of fast-ion confinement in steady-state DIII-D discharges is quantitatively consistent with predictions based on the effects of multiple unstable Alfven eigenmodes on beam-ion transport. Simulation and experiment show that increasing the radius where the magnetic safety factor has its minimum is effective in minimizing beam-ion transport. This is favorable for achieving high performance steady-state operation in DIII-D and future reactors. A comparison between the experiments and a critical gradient model, in which only equilibrium profiles were used to predict the most unstable modes, show that in a number of cases this model reproduces the measured neutron rate well.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-09CH11466; SC-G903402; FC02-04ER54698; AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1353401
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1361428; OSTI ID: 1840840
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-830739
Journal Information:
Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 57, Issue 5; ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Integrated modeling of high β N steady state scenario on DIII-D journal January 2018
Distortion of fuel-ion distribution functions by Alfvén eigenmodes in a tokamak DT plasma journal August 2018
Subdominant modes and optimization trends of DIII-D reverse magnetic shear configurations journal February 2019
Alfvén eigenmodes and fast ion transport in negative triangularity DIII-D plasmas journal June 2019
Enhanced radial energy transport induced by radially curved Alfvén eigenmode wavefronts journal July 2019
Subdominant modes and optimization trends of DIII-D reverse magnetic shear configurations text January 2019