Phenomenology of major and minor disruptions in high {beta} deuterium and tritium tokamak fusion test reactor plasma

Journal Article · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1998 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.873114· OSTI ID:663703

Mirnov, S; Semenov, I ^[1]; Fredrickson, E; Budny, R; Chang, Z; McGuire, K; Park, H; Takahashi, H; Taylor, G; Von Goeler, S; Zakharov, L; Zweben, S ^[2]

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1. TRINITI, Troitsk, 142092 Moscow Region (Russia)
2. Princeton University, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

The main subject of this work is the experimental study of the low {ital m} and {ital n} magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) perturbations during disruptive instability. This work presents the magnetic probe data, electron cyclotron emission (ECE), {alpha}-particle losses, and neutron flux data measured during the disruptive instability in high {beta} tokamak fusion test reactor (TFTR) [D. J. Grove and D. M. Meade, Nucl. Fusion {bold 25}, 1167 (1985)] plasmas. The major disruptions in high {beta} regimes go through several phases. The first phase is the fast (150{endash}250 {mu}s) minor disruption (predisruption), causing a drop of the central temperature (and possibly, density). In this phase a powerful central m=1/n=1 mode initiates the sequential development of m=4/n=1, 3/1, 2/1, 3/2 peripheral modes, which lead to a 3/1 locked mode. The second phase is the slow thermal quench (2 ms) in the presence of a locked mode. The third phase is a fast positive current spike generation (5{percent}{endash}10{percent} increase in Ip in less than 0.5 ms) and finally, the current quench occurs with a loss of 2.5 MA in 5 ms. {copyright} {ital 1998 American Institute of Physics.}

• OSTI ID: 663703
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 5; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DEUTERIUM
HIGH-BETA PLASMA
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA INSTABILITY