DISRUPTION MITIGATION WITH HIGH-PRESSURE NOBLE GAS INJECTION
OAK A271 DISRUPTION MITIGATION WITH HIGH-PRESSURE NOBLE GAS INJECTION. High-pressure gas jets of neon and argon are used to mitigate the three principal damaging effects of tokamak disruptions: thermal loading of the divertor surfaces, vessel stress from poloidal halo currents and the buildup and loss of relativistic electrons to the wall. The gas jet penetrates as a neutral species through to the central plasma at its sonic velocity. The injected gas atoms increase up to 500 times the total electron inventory in the plasma volume, resulting in a relatively benign radiative dissipation of >95% of the plasma stored energy. The rapid cooling and the slow movement of the plasma to the wall reduce poloidal halo currents during the current decay. The thermally collapsed plasma is very cold ({approx} 1-2 eV) and the impurity charge distribution can include > 50% fraction neutral species. If a sufficient quantity of gas is injected, the neutrals inhibit runaway electrons. A physical model of radiative cooling is developed and validated against DIII-D experiments. The model shows that gas jet mitigation, including runaway suppression, extrapolates favorably to burning plasmas where disruption damage will be more severe. Initial results of real-time disruption detection triggering gas jet injection for mitigation are shown.
- Research Organization:
- General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-99ER54463
- OSTI ID:
- 813647
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: THIS IS A PREPRINT OF A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PLASMA SURFACE INTERACTIONS IN CONTROLLED FUSION DEVICES, GIFU (JP), 05/27/2002--05/31/2002; Other Information: PBD: 1 Oct 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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