Fusion-neutron production in the TFTR with deuterium neutral beam injection

Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5405385· OSTI ID:5405385

Hendel, H W; England, A C; Jassby, D L; Mirin, A A; Nieschmidt, E B

We report measurements of the fusion reaction rate in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) covering a wide range of plasma conditions and injected neutral beam powers up to 6.3 MW. The fusion-neutron production rate in beam-injected plasmas decreases slightly with increasing plasma density n/sub e/, even though the energy confinement parameter n/sub e/tau/sub E/ generally increases with density. The measurements indicate and Fokker-Planck simulations show that with increasing density the source of fusion neutrons evolves from mainly beam-beam and beam-target reactions at very low n/sub e/ to a combination of beam-target and thermonuclear reactions at high n/sub e/. At a given plasma current, the reduction in neutron source strength at higher n/sub e/ is due to both a decrease in electron temperature and in beam-beam reaction rate. The Fokker-Planck simulations also show that at low n/sub e/, plasma rotation can appreciably reduce the beam-target reaction rate for experiments with co-injection only. The variation of neutron source strength with plasma and beam parameters is as expected for beam-dominated regimes. However, the Fokker-Planck simulations systematically overestimate the measured source strength by a factor of 2 to 3; the source of this discrepancy has not yet been identified.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (USA). Plasma Physics Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 5405385
• Report Number(s): PPPL-2318; ON: DE86013625
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700205* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Fuel
Heating
& Injection Systems
BARYONS
BEAM INJECTION
DEUTERIUM
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FERMIONS
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
HADRONS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NEUTRAL ATOM BEAM INJECTION
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA DENSITY
STABLE ISOTOPES
SYNTHESIS
TFTR TOKAMAK
THERMONUCLEAR REACTIONS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TOKAMAK TYPE REACTORS