#126
Status of Collisionless Runaway Electron Mitigation Experiments
Oral
Alexander Battey (Columbia University)
P. Aleynikov, U. Sheikh, H. Choudhury, X. Tang, Q. Zhang, Y. Zhang, C. Paz-Soldan, J. Decker, D. Spong, Y. Ghai, W. Heidbrink, E. Hollman, C. Marini, A. Lvovskiy, S. Tang, C. Lasnier, B. Van Compernolle, J. Barr, D. Shiraki, N. W. Eidietis, M. Pandya, and the DIII-D Team
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2024-06-11 05:32:41 |
Abstract
A series of updates will be presented on novel runaway electron (RE) mitigation techniques currently under development at the DIII-D tokamak and through the Frontier Science Program. The first update will focus on the status of the runaway electron mitigation coil (REMC) which has completed an initial engineering review and is schedule for installation in FY28. The REMC is a non-axisymmetric coil designed to passively drive large non-axisymmetric fields during the plasma disruption thereby destroying flux surfaces and deconfining RE seed populations. A brief overview will then be giving on two experiments which plan to explore the effect of externally launched electron cyclotron (EC) waves on the RE population. On the DIII-D tokamak it has been observed that when EC waves are launched into the low density quiescent runaway electron (QRE) regime that the RE population is expelled on a 1s time-scale. However, direct resonant interaction should be impossible since the launched X-mode polarization has a phase velocity much greater than the speed of light. A half-day experiment is planned to explore the mechanism behind these apparent indirect interactions. An additional half day experiment will also explore the ability to mode-convert between a launched O-mode and the slow-X mode. This new polarization should be capable of direct resonance with the REs. The final DIII-D experiment planned for the FY24 campaign will focus on a systematic investigation of the low-Z benign termination strategy. In this experiment the physics of background plasma recombination will be explored through a series of scans which will measure the neutral as well as deuterium and argon partial pressures. This will be coupled with a study of the physics of the final loss event at higher recombination pressures. Together these two studies should help fill in remaining gaps in our understanding of this mitigation strategy. A series of experiments is also planned through the Frontier Science Program to study the effect of both externally injected and self-excited plasma waves on REs across a wide range of geometries and plasma conditions. Experiments are planned to explore the effect of externally launched Whistler waves on REs in the LArge Plasma Device (LAPD) linear device. Finally, experiments are planned on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) which is equipped with a high frequency probe capable of measuring waves up to 6GHz. This provides a unique opportunity to measure self-excited waves up to and approaching the EC frequency as well as measure the internal slow-X EC wave due to the ability to insert this probe into the plasma.