Overview of fast particle experiments in the first MAST Upgrade experimental campaigns

Rivero-Rodríguez, J. F.; McClements, K. G.; Fitzgerald, M.; Sharapov, S. E.; Cecconello, M.; Crocker, N. A.; Dolby, I.; Dreval, M.; Fil, N.; Galdón-Quiroga, J.; García-Muñoz, M.; Blackmore, S.; Heidbrink, W.; Henderson, S.; Jackson, A.; Kappatou, A.; Keeling, D.; Liu, D.; Liu, Y. Q.; Michael, C.; Oliver, H. J. C.; Ollus, P.; Parr, E.; Prechel, G.; Rhodes, T.; Ryan, D.; Shi, P.; Vallar, M.; Velarde, L.; Williams, T.; Wong, H.; the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation Team; the MAST-U Team

Abstract

MAST-U is equipped with on-axis and off-axis neutral beam injectors (NBI), and these external sources of super-Alfvénic deuterium fast-ions provide opportunities for studying a wide range of phenomena relevant to the physics of alpha-particles in burning plasmas. The MeV range D-D fusion product ions are also produced but are not confined. Simulations with the ASCOT code show that up to 20% of fast ions produced by NBI can be lost due to charge exchange (CX) with edge neutrals. Dedicated experiments employing low field side (LFS) gas fuelling show a significant drop in the measured neutron fluxes resulting from beam-plasma reactions, providing additional evidence of CX-induced fast-ion losses, similar to the ASCOT findings. Clear evidence of fast-ion redistribution and loss due to sawteeth (ST), fishbones (FB), long-lived modes (LLM), Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAE), Edge Localised Modes (ELM) and neoclassical tearing modes (NTM) has been found in measurements with a Neutron Camera (NCU), a scintillator-based Fast-Ion Loss Detector (FILD), a Solid-State Neutral Particle Analyser (SSNPA) and a Fast-Ion Deuterium-α (FIDA) spectrometer. Unprecedented FILD measurements in the range of 1–2 MHz indicate that fast-ion losses can be also induced by the beam ion cyclotron resonance interaction with compressional or global Alfvén eigenmodes (CAEs or GAEs). These results show the wide variety of scenarios and the unique conditions in which fast ions can be studied in MAST-U, under conditions that are relevant for future devices like STEP or ITER.

Citation

Rivero-Rodríguez, J. F., McClements, K. G., Fitzgerald, M., Sharapov, S. E., Cecconello, M., Crocker, N. A., Dolby, I., Dreval, M., Fil, N., Galdón-Quiroga, J., García-Muñoz, M., Blackmore, S., Heidbrink, W., Henderson, S., Jackson, A., Kappatou, A., Keeling, D., Liu, D., Liu, Y. Q., Michael, C., …the MAST-U Team. (2024). Overview of fast particle experiments in the first MAST Upgrade experimental campaigns. Nuclear Fusion, 64(8), Article 086025. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad56a2

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 11, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 24, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 30, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 30, 2024
• Journal: Nuclear Fusion
• Print ISSN: 0029-5515
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-4326
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: 086025
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad56a2
• Keywords: fast-ions, spherical tokamak, fusion
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2640896