Staged cooling of a fusion-grade plasma in a tokamak thermal quench
In tokamak disruptions where the magnetic connection length becomes comparable to or even shorter than the plasma mean-free-path, parallel transport can dominate the energy loss and the thermal quench of the core plasma goes through four phases (stages) that have distinct temperature ranges and durations. The main temperature drop occurs while the core plasma remains nearly collisionless, with the parallel electron temperature $$T_{e\parallel}$$ dropping in time t as $$T_{e\parallel}\propto t^{-2}$$ and a cooling time that scales with the ion sound wave transit time over the length of the open magnetic field line. These surprising physics scalings are the result of effective suppression of parallel electron thermal conduction in an otherwise bounded, quasineutral, and collisionless plasma, which is different from what are known to date on electron thermal conduction along the magnetic field in a nearly collisionless and quasineural plasma.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231; LDRD - Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship
- OSTI ID:
- 1973151
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1970530; OSTI ID: 1972983
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-22-26898; TRN: US2313857
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 63, Issue 6; ISSN 0029-5515
- Publisher:
- IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Equilibrium properties of the plasma sheath with a magnetic field parallel to the wall
Avoidance of impurity-induced current quench using lower hybrid current drive