Understanding how minority relativistic electron populations may dominate charge state balance and radiative cooling of a post-thermal quench tokamak plasma

Garland, Nathan Ashley; Chung, Hyun-Kyung; Zammit, Mark Christian; McDevitt, Christopher J.; Colgan, James Patrick; Fontes, Christopher John; Tang, Xian-Zhu

doi:10.1063/5.0071996

Title: Understanding how minority relativistic electron populations may dominate charge state balance and radiative cooling of a post-thermal quench tokamak plasma

Journal Article · 17 January 2022 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071996 · OSTI ID:1868298

^[1]; Chung, Hyun-Kyung ^[2];

^[3]; McDevitt, Christopher J. ^[4];

^[3];

^[3]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Southern Cross Univ., Lismore (Australia); Griffith Univ., Queensland (Australia)
Korea Inst. of Fusion Energy, Daejeon (South Korea)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)

Minority relativistic electron populations can occur in a range of complex plasmas. Of specific interest is when runaway electrons form among the presence of high-atomic-number ion species in a tokamak plasma discharge. It has been recently demonstrated that ion charge state distributions and radiation losses at low bulk electron temperatures can be dominated by relativistic electrons, even though their density is orders of magnitude lower. Furthermore, this was attributed to the relativistic enhancement of electron impact inelastic cross sections. In this work, we provide a closer inspection of the atomic physics underpinning this effect. We also demonstrate the consequences of runaway enhanced scattering on post-disruption tokamak fusion discharges with neon and argon impurities present. Effects on charge state distributions, radiation and spectral characteristics, and reduced-order modeling considerations are discussed.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: LDRD; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1868298

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-21-29190

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 29; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Understanding how minority relativistic electron populations may dominate charge state balance and radiative cooling of a post-thermal quench tokamak plasma

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