Mitigation of tokamak disruptions using high-pressure gas injection.
High-pressure gas-jet injection of neon and argon is shown to be a simple and robust method to mitigate the deleterious effects of disruptions on the DIII-D tokamak. The gas jet penetrates to the central plasma at its sonic velocity. The deposited species dissipates >95% of the plasma by radiation and substantially reduces mechanical stresses on the vessel caused by poloidal halo currents. The gas-jet species-charge distribution can include >50% fraction neutral species which inhibits runaway electrons. The favorable scaling of this technique to burning fusion plasmas is discussed.
Whyte
D G
DG
University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
Jernigan
T C
TC
Humphreys
D A
DA
Hyatt
A W
AW
Lasnier
C J
CJ
Parks
P B
PB
Evans
T E
TE
Rosenbluth
M N
MN
Taylor
P L
PL
Kellman
A G
AG
Gray
D S
DS
Hollmann
E M
EM
Combs
S K
SK