First observations of confined fast ions in MAST Upgrade with the upgraded neutron camera

First observations of confined fast ions in MAST Upgrade with the upgraded neutron camera

First observations of confined fast ions in MAST Upgrade with the upgraded neutron camera 150 150 UKAEA Opendata
UKAEA-CCFE-PR(23)03

First observations of confined fast ions in MAST Upgrade with the upgraded neutron camera

Spherical tokamaks are key for the successful design of operating scenarios of future fusion reactors in the areas of divertor physics, neutral beam current drive and fast ion physics. MAST Upgrade, which has successfully concluded its first experimental campaign, was specifically designed to address the role of the radial gradient of the fast ion distribution in driving the excitation of MHD instabilities such as Toroidal Alfv’en eigenmodes, fish-bones and long-lived mode, thanks to its two tangential neutral beam injection systems, one on the equatorial plane and one that is vertically shifted 65 cm above the equatorial plane. To study the fast ion dynamics in presence of such instabilities as well as of sawteeth and neo-classical tearing modes, several fast ions diagnostics were upgraded and new ones added. Among them, the MAST prototype neutron camera has been upgraded to six, equatorial sight-lines. The first observations of the confined fast ions behaviour with the upgraded neutron camera in a wide range of plasma scenarios characterized by on-axis and/or off-axis heating and different MHD instabilities are presented here. The observation presented in this study confirm previous results on MAST but with a higher level of details and highlight new physics observations unique to MAST Upgrade. The results here presented confirm the improved performances of the Neutron Camera Upgrade which thus become one of the key elements, in combination with the rich set of fast ion diagnostics available on MAST Upgrade, for a more constrained modeling of the fast ion dynamics in fusion reactor relevant scenarios.

Collection:
Journals
Journal:
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Publisher:
IOP (Institute of Physics)