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Title: A novel path to runaway electron mitigation via deuterium injection and current-driven MHD instability

Abstract

Relativistic electron (RE) beams at high current density (low safety factor, qa) yet very low free-electron density accessed with D2 secondary injection in the DIII-D and JET tokamak are found to exhibit large-scale MHD instabilities that benignly terminate the RE beam. In JET, this technique has enabled termination of MA-level RE currents without measurable first-wall heating. This scenario thus offers an unexpected alternate pathway to achieve RE mitigation without collisional dissipation. Benign termination is explained by two synergistic effects. First, during the MHD-driven RE loss events both experiment and MHD orbit-loss modeling supports a significant increase in the wetted area of the RE loss. Second, as previously identified at JET and DIII-D, the fast kink loss timescale precludes RE beam regeneration and the resulting dangerous conversion of magnetic to RE kinetic energy. During the termination, the RE kinetic energy is lost to the wall, but the current fully transfers to the cold bulk thus enabling benign Ohmic dissipation of the magnetic energy on longer timescales via a conventional current quench. Hydrogenic (D2) secondary injection is found to be the only injected species that enables access to the benign termination. D2 injection: 1) facilitates access to low qa in existing devicesmore » (via reduced collisionality & resistivity), 2) minimizes the RE avalanche by ‘purging’ the high-Z atoms from the RE beam, 3) drives recombination of the background plasma, reducing the density and Alfven time, thus accelerating the MHD growth. Furthermore, this phenomenon is found to be accessible when crossing the low qa stability boundary with rising current, falling toroidal field, or contracting minor radius - the latter being the expected scenario for vertically unstable RE beams in ITER. While unexpected, this path scales favorably to fusion-grade tokamaks and offers a novel RE mitigation scenario in principle accessible with the day-one disruption mitigation system (DMS) of ITER.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [9];  [7];  [6];  [10]; ORCiD logo [11]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [12];  [9]; ORCiD logo [13] more »;  [10];  [14]; ORCiD logo [15];  [16];  [17]; ORCiD logo [18]; ORCiD logo [12];  [19]; ORCiD logo [20];  [21];  [10];  [22];  [6];  [23]; ORCiD logo [6];  [24];  [22];  [25] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  2. CEA, Saint-Paul-lez-Durance (France)
  3. Max-Planck-Inst. für Plasmaphysik Teilinstitut Greifswald (Germany)
  4. Max-Planck-Inst. fur Plasmaphysik, Greifswald (Germany)
  5. Max-Planck-Inst. fur Plasmaphysics, Garching (Germany)
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  7. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
  8. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  9. Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Abingdon (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
  10. Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  11. Univ. of Rome (Italy)
  12. Akademie Ved Ceske Republiky Ustav Fyziky Plazmatu, Praha (Czech Republic)
  13. Max-Planck-Inst. Plasmaphysik, Garching (Germany)
  14. Forschungszentrum Julich, Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany)
  15. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  16. CEA-Cadarache, St Paul lez Durance (France)
  17. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  18. ITER Organization, St Paul Lez Durance (France)
  19. Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnologicas, Madrid (Spain)
  20. Max Planck Inst. for Plasma Physics, Bavaria (Germany)
  21. Max-Planck-Inst. fur Plasmaphysik, Bayern (Germany)
  22. Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
  23. EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland)
  24. CEA-IFRM, Saint Paul Lez Durance (France)
  25. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States). Princeton Univ.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
EUROfusion Consortium; Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1823475
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1828768; OSTI ID: 1860591; OSTI ID: 1867543
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-835135
Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515; 633053; TA C18TD38FU; TRN: US2215629
Grant/Contract Number:  
FC02-04ER54698; SC0020299; FG02-07ER54917; SC0022270; 633053; AC05-00OR22725; AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nuclear Fusion
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 61; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP Science
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; Physics - Plasma physics

Citation Formats

Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Reux, Cedric, Aleynikova, Ksenia, Aleynikov, Pavel, Bandaru, Vinodh, Beidler, Matthew, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Liu, Chang, Liu, Yueqiang, Lvovskiy, Andrey, Silburn, Scott Alan, Bardoczi, Laszlo, Baylor, Larry R., Bykov, Igor, Carnevale, Daniele, del-Castillo-Negrete, Diego, Du, Xiaodi, Ficker, Ondřej, Gerasimov, Sergei, Hoelzl, Matthias, Hollmann, Eric M., Jachmich, Stefan, Jardin, Stephen C., Joffrin, Emmanuel Henri, Lasnier, Charles, Lehnen, Michael, Macusova, Eva, Manzanares, Ana, Papp, Gergely, Pautasso, Gabriella, Popovic, Zana, Rimini, Fernanda, Shiraki, Daisuke, Sommariva, Cristian, Spong, Donald A., Sridhar, Sundaresan, Szepesi, Gabor, and Zhao, Chen. A novel path to runaway electron mitigation via deuterium injection and current-driven MHD instability. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ac2a69.
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Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Reux, Cedric, Aleynikova, Ksenia, Aleynikov, Pavel, Bandaru, Vinodh, Beidler, Matthew, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Liu, Chang, Liu, Yueqiang, Lvovskiy, Andrey, Silburn, Scott Alan, Bardoczi, Laszlo, Baylor, Larry R., Bykov, Igor, Carnevale, Daniele, del-Castillo-Negrete, Diego, Du, Xiaodi, Ficker, Ondřej, Gerasimov, Sergei, Hoelzl, Matthias, Hollmann, Eric M., Jachmich, Stefan, Jardin, Stephen C., Joffrin, Emmanuel Henri, Lasnier, Charles, Lehnen, Michael, Macusova, Eva, Manzanares, Ana, Papp, Gergely, Pautasso, Gabriella, Popovic, Zana, Rimini, Fernanda, Shiraki, Daisuke, Sommariva, Cristian, Spong, Donald A., Sridhar, Sundaresan, Szepesi, Gabor, & Zhao, Chen. A novel path to runaway electron mitigation via deuterium injection and current-driven MHD instability. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac2a69
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Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Reux, Cedric, Aleynikova, Ksenia, Aleynikov, Pavel, Bandaru, Vinodh, Beidler, Matthew, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Liu, Chang, Liu, Yueqiang, Lvovskiy, Andrey, Silburn, Scott Alan, Bardoczi, Laszlo, Baylor, Larry R., Bykov, Igor, Carnevale, Daniele, del-Castillo-Negrete, Diego, Du, Xiaodi, Ficker, Ondřej, Gerasimov, Sergei, Hoelzl, Matthias, Hollmann, Eric M., Jachmich, Stefan, Jardin, Stephen C., Joffrin, Emmanuel Henri, Lasnier, Charles, Lehnen, Michael, Macusova, Eva, Manzanares, Ana, Papp, Gergely, Pautasso, Gabriella, Popovic, Zana, Rimini, Fernanda, Shiraki, Daisuke, Sommariva, Cristian, Spong, Donald A., Sridhar, Sundaresan, Szepesi, Gabor, and Zhao, Chen. Thu . "A novel path to runaway electron mitigation via deuterium injection and current-driven MHD instability". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac2a69. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1823475.
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@article{osti_1823475,
title = {A novel path to runaway electron mitigation via deuterium injection and current-driven MHD instability},
author = {Paz-Soldan, Carlos and Reux, Cedric and Aleynikova, Ksenia and Aleynikov, Pavel and Bandaru, Vinodh and Beidler, Matthew and Eidietis, Nicholas W. and Liu, Chang and Liu, Yueqiang and Lvovskiy, Andrey and Silburn, Scott Alan and Bardoczi, Laszlo and Baylor, Larry R. and Bykov, Igor and Carnevale, Daniele and del-Castillo-Negrete, Diego and Du, Xiaodi and Ficker, Ondřej and Gerasimov, Sergei and Hoelzl, Matthias and Hollmann, Eric M. and Jachmich, Stefan and Jardin, Stephen C. and Joffrin, Emmanuel Henri and Lasnier, Charles and Lehnen, Michael and Macusova, Eva and Manzanares, Ana and Papp, Gergely and Pautasso, Gabriella and Popovic, Zana and Rimini, Fernanda and Shiraki, Daisuke and Sommariva, Cristian and Spong, Donald A. and Sridhar, Sundaresan and Szepesi, Gabor and Zhao, Chen},
abstractNote = {Relativistic electron (RE) beams at high current density (low safety factor, qa) yet very low free-electron density accessed with D2 secondary injection in the DIII-D and JET tokamak are found to exhibit large-scale MHD instabilities that benignly terminate the RE beam. In JET, this technique has enabled termination of MA-level RE currents without measurable first-wall heating. This scenario thus offers an unexpected alternate pathway to achieve RE mitigation without collisional dissipation. Benign termination is explained by two synergistic effects. First, during the MHD-driven RE loss events both experiment and MHD orbit-loss modeling supports a significant increase in the wetted area of the RE loss. Second, as previously identified at JET and DIII-D, the fast kink loss timescale precludes RE beam regeneration and the resulting dangerous conversion of magnetic to RE kinetic energy. During the termination, the RE kinetic energy is lost to the wall, but the current fully transfers to the cold bulk thus enabling benign Ohmic dissipation of the magnetic energy on longer timescales via a conventional current quench. Hydrogenic (D2) secondary injection is found to be the only injected species that enables access to the benign termination. D2 injection: 1) facilitates access to low qa in existing devices (via reduced collisionality & resistivity), 2) minimizes the RE avalanche by ‘purging’ the high-Z atoms from the RE beam, 3) drives recombination of the background plasma, reducing the density and Alfven time, thus accelerating the MHD growth. Furthermore, this phenomenon is found to be accessible when crossing the low qa stability boundary with rising current, falling toroidal field, or contracting minor radius - the latter being the expected scenario for vertically unstable RE beams in ITER. While unexpected, this path scales favorably to fusion-grade tokamaks and offers a novel RE mitigation scenario in principle accessible with the day-one disruption mitigation system (DMS) of ITER.},
doi = {10.1088/1741-4326/ac2a69},
journal = {Nuclear Fusion},
number = 11,
volume = 61,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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