title: Mitigation of tokamak disruptions using high-pressure gas injection.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Jernigan
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Humphreys
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Hyatt
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lasnier
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Rosenbluth
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Kellman
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hollmann
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Combs