The use of neutral beam heating to produce high performance fusion plasmas, including the injection of tritium beams into the Joint European Torus (JET)

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Physics of Fluids B; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.860977· OSTI ID:6232793

Thompson, E; Stork, D; de Esch, H P.L. ^[1]

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1. JET Joint Undertaking, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 3EA (United Kingdom)

The neutral beam injection (NBI) system of the Joint European Torus (JET) [[ital Plasma] [ital Physics] [ital and] [ital Controlled] [ital Nuclear] [ital Fusion] [ital Research] (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1985), Vol. 1, p. 11] has proved to be an extremely effective and flexible heating method capable of producing high performance plasmas and performing a wide range of related physics experiments. High fusion performance deuterium plasmas have been obtained in the hot-ion (HI) H-mode regime, using the central particle fueling and ion heating capabilities of the NBI system in low target density plasmas, and in the pellet enhanced plasma (PEP) H-mode regime, where the good central confinement properties of pellet fueled plasmas are exploited by additional heating and fueling as well as the transition to H mode. The HI H-mode configuration was used for the First Tritium Experiment (FTE) in JET in which NBI was used to heat the plasma using 14 D[sup 0] beams and, for the first time, to inject T[sup 0] using the two remaining beams. These plasmas had a peak fusion power of 1.7 MW from deuterium--tritium (D--T) fusion reactions. The capability for injection of a variety of beam species (H[sup 0], D[sup 0], [sup 3]He[sup 0], and [sup 4]He[sup 0]) has allowed the study of confinement variation with atomic mass and the simulation of [alpha]-particle transport. Additionally, the use of the NBI system has permitted an investigation of the plasma behavior near the toroidal [beta] limit over a wide range of toroidal field strengths.

• OSTI ID: 6232793
• Journal Information: Physics of Fluids B; (United States), Journal Name: Physics of Fluids B; (United States) Vol. 5:7; ISSN 0899-8221; ISSN PFBPEI
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700350* -- Plasma Production
Heating
Current Drive
& Interactions-- (1992-)
ALPHA PARTICLES
BEAM INJECTION
BEAM INJECTION HEATING
BEAMS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHARGED PARTICLES
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
CONFINEMENT
DEUTERIUM
HEATING
HELIUM 3 BEAMS
HELIUM 4 BEAMS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ION BEAMS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NEUTRAL ATOM BEAM INJECTION
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA HEATING
RADIOISOTOPES
STABLE ISOTOPES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
TRITIUM
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES