Experiments in high-performance JET plasmas in preparation of second harmonic ICRF heating of tritium in ITER

Experiments in high-performance JET plasmas in preparation of second harmonic ICRF heating of tritium in ITER

Experiments in high-performance JET plasmas in preparation of second harmonic ICRF heating of tritium in ITER 150 150 UKAEA Opendata

The reference ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) heating schemes for ITER deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas at the full magnetic field of 5.3 T are second harmonic heating of tritium and 3He minority heating. The wave-particle resonance location for these schemes coincide and are central at a wave frequency of 53 MHz at 5.3T [1]. Experiments have been carried out in the second D-T campaign at JET, and in its prior deuterium campaigns, to integrate these ICRF scenarios in JET high-performance plasmas and to compare their performance with respect to that of the commonly used hydrogen (H) minority heating. The overall performance of JET hybrid plasmas heated with these ICRF schemes was found to be similar to H minority heating. Central power deposition on ions and electrons was confirmed with the break-in-slope and fast Fourier transform analysis of ion and electron temperature in response to ICRF modulation. The results indicate approximately 15% higher core ion temperatures with second harmonic heating of tritium and 3He minority heating as compared with H minority heating for a given plasma energy content. An intrinsic background concentration of 3He of the order of 0.2-0.4% of the electron density was measured in discharges prepared to study second harmonic heating of tritium in the absence of 3He. According to ICRF modelling, such concentrations of 3He can lead to changes in ICRF power deposition due to the absorption of approx. 30% of wave power by 3He. Information on ICRF-accelerated ion populations were obtained with a high-energy neutral particle analyzer. In all discharges, the measured fast ion losses were dominated by losses of fusion-born alpha particles, and no losses of ICRF-accelerated ions were observed as was expected. Alpha particle losses correlated with the total fusion yield and were enhanced by MHD activity, i.e. fishbones and n=1 mode.

Collection:
Journals
Journal:
Nuclear Fusion
Publisher:
IOP (Institute of Physics)