ELM BURN-THROUGH SIMULATIONS FOR MAST-U SUPER-X PLASMAS

ELM BURN-THROUGH SIMULATIONS FOR MAST-U SUPER-X PLASMAS

ELM BURN-THROUGH SIMULATIONS FOR MAST-U SUPER-X PLASMAS 150 150 UKAEA Opendata
UKAEA-CCFE-CP(23)14

ELM BURN-THROUGH SIMULATIONS FOR MAST-U SUPER-X PLASMAS

The high heat fluxes to the divertor during edge localised mode (ELM) instabilities have to be reduced for a sustainable future tokamak reactor. A solution to reduce the heat fluxes could be the Super-X divertor, this divertor configuration will be tested on MAST-U. ELM simulations for MAST-U Super-X tokamak plasmas have been obtained, using JOREK. Questions of ELM burn-through can only be answered with confidence when MAST-U starts operation, but until then simulations can provide useful guidance. A detached divertor MAST-U case is used as a starting point for the ELM burn-through simulations. The plasma burns through the neutrals front during the ELM causing the divertor plasma to re-attach. After the ELM crash a transition back to detachment is indicated, where the recovery to pre-ELM divertor conditions occurs in a few milliseconds, when the neutral pressure is high in the divertor. Recovery times are shorter than the type I inter-ELM phase in previous MAST experiments. The peak ELM energy fluence obtained after the ELM burn-through is 0.82 kJ/m2, which is significantly lower than that predicted from the empirical scaling of the ELM energy fluence – indicating promising results for future MAST-U operations.

Collection:
Conference
Journal:
Publisher:
Conference:
28th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Nice, France, 10-15th May 2021