Effects of magnetic perturbations and radiation on the runaway avalanche

Effects of magnetic perturbations and radiation on the runaway avalanche

Effects of magnetic perturbations and radiation on the runaway avalanche 150 150 UKAEA Opendata
UKAEA-CCFE-PR(20)138

Effects of magnetic perturbations and radiation on the runaway avalanche

The electron runaway phenomenon in plasmas depends sensitively on the momentum space dynamics. However, efficient simulation of the global evolution of systems involving runaway electrons typically requires a reduced fluid description. This is needed for example in the design of essential runaway mitigation methods for tokamaks. In this paper, we present a method to include the effect of momentum-dependent spatial transport in the runaway avalanche growth rate. We quantify the reduction of the growth rate in the presence of electron diffusion in stochastic magnetic fields and show that the spatial transport can raise the effective critical electric field. Using a perturbative approach we derive a set of equations that allows treatment of the effect of spatial transport on runaway dynamics in the presence radial variation in plasma parameters. This is then used to demonstrate the effect of spatial transport in disruption simulations for ITER-like plasmas with massive material injection.

Collection:
Journals
Journal:
Journal of Plasma Physics
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Published date:
15/03/2021