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#250
Fast radiation events in low-Z runaway electron mitigations on TCV Oral
Gabriele Partesotti (EPFL - Swiss Plasma Center )
U. Sheikh, M. Pedrini, J. Decker
Abstract
The mitigation of runaway electron (RE) beams remains a major challenge for safe operation of high-power tokamak devices [1]. In particular, the kinetic and magnetic RE energy will need to be safely dissipated to prevent machine damage. RE beam formation and benign termination scenarios are being studied extensively at the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV) thanks to its wide diagnostic set and flexible magnetic system [2]. One possible mitigation solution that can be extrapolated to large machines involves the Massive Gas Injection (MGI) of hydrogenic material followed by plasma compression to trigger MHD instabilities [3]. In this contribution, we investigate the plasma radiation response at the time of the disruption using the RADCAM diagnostic, which combines bolometric, AXUV, and soft X-ray measurements [4]. We begin by taking advantage of the shared RADCAM sight lines to cross-calibrate the AXUV diodes using the bolometer data [4], obtaining fast radiated power measurements. The higher time resolution offered by the diodes (5 µs) allows the observation of fast radiation events which the bolometers are unable to track (1 ms). To assess the reliability of the cross-calibration during the different phases of the plasma discharge, we study its dependence on relevant plasma parameters. A neural network solution to integrate this scaling is also being investigated. Then, we exploit the fast cross-calibrated diode measurements to characterize the time behavior of the radiation flash at the end of the current quench in mitigated and unmitigated disruptions at TCV. We use the soft X-ray diagnostic to identify hard X-ray emission events associated with RE impacts and discard altered diode signals. Preliminary results show a clear correlation between the fast radiated power signal, the neutral pressure in the camber, and the time derivative of the toroidal plasma current. References: [1] V. Bandaru et al Nucl. Fusion 64 076053 (2024) [2] J. Decker et al Nucl. Fusion 62 076038 (2022) [3] U. Sheikh et al. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 66 035003 (2024) [4] U. Sheikh et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 93, 113513 (2022)
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