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Title: Physics of runaway electrons in tokamaks

Journal Article · · Nuclear Fusion
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  2. Max-Planck-Inst. für Plasmaphysik, Greifswald (Germany)
  3. Univ. of California - San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  4. ITER Organization, St Paul Lez Durance (France)

This review covers basic physics ingredients of the runaway phenomenon and the ongoing efforts (experimental and theoretical) aimed at runaway electron taming in the next generation tokamaks. We emphasize the prevailing physics themes of the last 20 years: the hot-tail mechanism of runaway production, runaway electron interaction with impurity ions, the role of synchrotron radiation in runaway kinetics, runaway electron transport in presence of magnetic fluctuations, micro-instabilities of runaway electrons in magnetized plasmas, and vertical stability of the plasma with runaway electrons. Here, the review also discusses the implications of the runaway phenomenon for ITER and the current strategy of runaway electron mitigation.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); ITER Organization
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016283; FG02-04ER54742; ITER/CT/15/4300001178
OSTI ID:
1595259
Journal Information:
Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 8; ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 87 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Evaluation of the Dreicer runaway generation rate in the presence of high- impurities using a neural network journal December 2019
Effect of plasma elongation on current dynamics during tokamak disruptions journal January 2020
Message From the Editor-in-Chief journal January 2007
MeV range particle physics studies in tokamak plasmas using gamma-ray spectroscopy journal November 2019
Message from the Editor-in-Chief journal December 2019
Dissipation of runaway current by massive gas injection on J-TEXT journal November 2019
Electron runaway in ASDEX Upgrade experiments of varying core temperature journal May 2021
Tomographic reconstruction of the runaway distribution function in TCV using multispectral synchrotron images journal March 2021
Runaway dynamics in the DT phase of ITER operations in the presence of massive material injection text January 2020
The JOREK non-linear extended MHD code and applications to large-scale instabilities and their control in magnetically confined fusion plasmas text January 2020

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