Fundamental ICRF heating of deuterium ions in JET-DTE2

E. Lerche, M. Maslov, Ph Jacquet, I. Monakhov, D. King, D. Keeling, C. D. Challis, D. Van Eester, P. Mantica, C. Maggi, J. Garcia, F. Auriemma, R. Coelho, I. Coffey, A. Chomiczewska, E. Delabie, R. Dumont, P. Dumortier, J. Eriksson, J. FerreiraM. Fitzgerald, M. Fontana, Z. Ghani, N. Hawkes, J. Hobirk, Ph Huynh, T. Johnson, A. Kappatou, Y. Kazakov, V. Kiptily, K. Kirov, M. Lennholm, E. De La Luna, J. Mailloux, M. Marin, G. Matthews, S. Menmuir, J. Mitchell, M. Nocente, J. Ongena, A. Patel, G. Pucella, E. Rachlew, D. Rigamonti, F. Rimini, S. Silburn, P. Siren, M. Salewski, E. Solano, Z. Stancar, M. Tardocchi, M. Valisa

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

Beam-target reactions are responsible for a substantial fraction of the fusion power generated in D-T plasmas in JET-ILW (Be/W-wall), with ion temperatures of 10-12keV and large neutral-beam injection (NBI) power. It is known that injecting D beam ions with energies of ∼100-150keV in T-rich plasmas has a larger potential for beam-target fusion than in 50:50 D:T plasmas, but such a scenario was never developed in the past D-T experiments performed in JET-C (Carbon-wall) and in TFTR in the 90's. On top of the intrinsic advantages of using D beams in T-rich plasmas for D-T neutron production, simulations have shown that fundamental ion-cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) of the D ions can significantly boost the net fusion reactivity, since both the thermalized D ions and the fast D-NBI ions are accelerated to energy ranges that are optimal for the D-T reaction cross-section. The beneficial effect of fundamental D ICRH on thermal D minorities in tritium plasmas (without NBI) was identified in the JET-C D-T experiments, but was not tested in high performance H-mode discharges with D-NBI heating. In 2021, dedicated JET-ILW DTE2 [1] experiments confirmed - for the first time - the improved fusion performance of T-rich plasmas with high D-NBI power and highlighted the key impact of fundamental D ICRH on the fusion reactivity. This new scenario lead to the world-wide 5s averaged fusion power (and energy) record in D-T tokamak plasmas with dominant beam-target reactions. A brief experimental overview followed by detailed RF wave / Fokker-Planck simulations including NBI-ICRH synergy will be presented, to disentangle the different components contributing to the high neutron yield achieved in these experiments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number030005
JournalAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume2984
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Aug 2023
Event24th Topical Conference on Radio-frequency Power in Plasmas - Annapolis, United States
Duration: 26 Sept 202228 Sept 2022

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