| 1. |
- Cufar, Aljaz, et al.
(författare)
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Calculations to support JET neutron yield calibration : Modelling of neutron emission from a compact DT neutron generator
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - : ELSEVIER. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 847, s. 199-204
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- At the Joint European Torus (JET) the ex-vessel fission chambers and in-vessel activation detectors are used as the neutron production rate and neutron yield monitors respectively. In order to ensure that these detectors produce accurate measurements they need to be experimentally calibrated. A new calibration of neutron detectors to 14 MeV neutrons, resulting from deuterium tritium (DT) plasmas, is planned at JET using a compact accelerator based neutron generator (NG) in which a D/T beam impinges on a solid target containing T/D, producing neutrons by DT fusion reactions. This paper presents the analysis that was performed to model the neutron source characteristics in terms of energy spectrum, angle energy distribution and the effect of the neutron generator geometry. Different codes capable of simulating the accelerator based DT neutron sources are compared and sensitivities to uncertainties in the generator's internal structure analysed. The analysis was performed to support preparation to the experimental measurements performed to characterize the NG as a calibration source. Further extensive neutronics analyses, performed with this model of the NG, will be needed to support the neutron calibration experiments and take into account various differences between the calibration experiment and experiments using the plasma as a source of neutrons.
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| 2. |
- Lengar, Igor, et al.
(författare)
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Activation material selection for multiple foil activation detectors in JET TT campaign
- 2018
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Ingår i: Fusion engineering and design. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0920-3796 .- 1873-7196. ; 136, s. 988-992
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the preparation for the Deuterium-Tritium campaign, JET will operate with a tritium plasma. The T + T reaction consists of two notable channels: (1) T + T -> He-4 + 2n, (2) T + T -> He-5 + n -> He-4 + 2n. The reaction channel (1) is the reaction with the highest branching ratio and a continuum of neutron energies being produced. Reaction channel (2) produces a spectrum with a peak at 8.8 MeV. A particular problem is the ratio between the individual TT reaction channels, which is highly dependent on the energy of the reacting tritium ions. There are very few measurements on the TT spectrum and the study at JET would be interesting. The work is focused on the determination of the spectral characteristics in the TT plasma discharges, especially on the presence of the 8.8 MeV peak, a consequence of channel (2) of the TT reaction. The possibility to use an optimized set of activation materials in order to target the measurement of the 8.8 MeV peak is studied. The lower limit of detection for the channel (2) ratio within the TT reaction is estimated and the influence of DT source neutrons, which are a consequence of deuterium traces in the plasma, is investigated.
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| 3. |
- Andersson Sundén, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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An assessment of nitrogen concentrations from spectroscopic measurements in the JET and ASDEX upgrade divertor
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nuclear Materials and Energy. - : Elsevier. - 2352-1791. ; 18, s. 147-152
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The impurity concentration in the tokamak divertor plasma is a necessary input for predictive scaling of divertor detachment, however direct measurements from existing tokamaks in different divertor plasma conditions are limited. To address this, we have applied a recently developed spectroscopic N II line ratio technique for measuring the N concentration in the divertor to a range of H-mode and L-mode plasma from the ASDEX Upgrade and JET tokamaks, respectively. The results from both devices show that as the power crossing the separatrix, P-sep, is increased under otherwise similar core conditions (e.g. density), a higher N concentration is required to achieve the same detachment state. For example, the N concentrations at the start of detachment increase from approximate to 2% to approximate to 9% as P-sep, is increased from approximate to 2.5 MW to approximate to 7 MW. These results tentatively agree with scaling law predictions (e.g. Goldston et al.) motivating a further study examining the parameters which affect the N concentration required to reach detachment. Finally, the N concentrations from spectroscopy and the ratio of D and N gas valve fluxes agree within experimental uncertainty only when the vessel surfaces are fully-loaded with N.
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| 4. |
- Angioni, C., et al.
(författare)
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Dependence of the turbulent particle flux on hydrogen isotopes induced by collisionality
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physics of Plasmas. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 1070-664X .- 1089-7674 .- 1070-6631 .- 1089-7666. ; 25:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The impact of the change of the mass of hydrogen isotopes on the turbulent particle flux is studied. The trapped electron component of the turbulent particle convection induced by collisionality, which is outward in ion temperature gradient turbulence, increases with decreasing thermal velocity of the isotope. Thereby, the lighter is the isotope, the stronger is the turbulent pinch, and the larger is the predicted density gradient at the null of the particle flux. The passing particle component of the flux increases with decreasing mass of the isotope and can also affect the predicted density gradient. This effect is however subdominant for usual core plasma parameters. The analytical results are confirmed by means of both quasi-linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations, and an estimate of the difference in local density gradient produced by this effect as a function of collisionality has been obtained for typical plasma parameters at mid-radius. Analysis of currently available experimental data from the JET and the ASDEX Upgrade tokamaks does not show any clear and general evidence of inconsistency with this theoretically predicted effect outside the errorbars and also allows the identification of cases providing weak evidence of qualitative consistency.
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| 5. |
- Appel, L. C., et al.
(författare)
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Equilibrium reconstruction in an iron core tokamak using a deterministic magnetisation model
- 2018
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Ingår i: Computer Physics Communications. - : ELSEVIER. - 0010-4655 .- 1879-2944. ; 223, s. 1-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many tokamaks ferromagnetic material, usually referred to as an iron-core, is present in order to improve the magnetic coupling between the solenoid and the plasma. The presence of the iron core in proximity to the plasma changes the magnetic topology with consequent effects on the magnetic field structure and the plasma boundary. This paper considers the problem of obtaining the free-boundary plasma equilibrium solution in the presence of ferromagnetic material based on measured constraints. The current approach employs, a model described by O'Brien et al. (1992) in which the magnetisation currents at the iron-air boundary are represented by a set of free parameters and appropriate boundary conditions are enforced via a set of quasi-measurements on the material boundary. This can lead to the possibility of overfitting the data and hiding underlying issues with the measured signals. Although the model typically achieves good fits to measured magnetic signals there are significant discrepancies in the inferred magnetic topology compared with other plasma diagnostic measurements that are independent of the magnetic field. An alternative approach for equilibrium reconstruction in iron-core tokamaks, termed the deterministic magnetisation model is developed and implemented in EFIT++. The iron is represented by a boundary current with the gradients in the magnetisation dipole state generating macroscopic internal magnetisation currents. A model for the boundary magnetisation currents at the iron-air interface is developed using B-Splines enabling continuity to arbitrary order; internal magnetisation currents are allocated to triangulated regions within the iron, and a method to enable adaptive refinement is implemented. The deterministic model has been validated by comparing it with a synthetic 2-D electromagnetic model of JET. It is established that the maximum field discrepancy is less than 1.5 mT throughout the vacuum region enclosing the plasma. The discrepancies of simulated magnetic probe signals are accurate to within 1% for signals with absolute magnitude greater than 100 mT; in all other cases agreement is to within 1 mT. The effect of neglecting the internal magnetisation currents increases the maximum discrepancy in the vacuum region to >20 mT, resulting in errors of 5%-10% in the simulated probe signals. The fact that the previous model neglects the internal magnetisation currents (and also has additional free parameters when fitting the measured data) makes it unsuitable for analysing data in the absence of plasma current. The discrepancy of the poloidal magnetic flux within the vacuum vessel is to within 0.1 Wb. Finally the deterministic model is applied to an equilibrium force-balance solution of a JET discharge using experimental data. It is shown that the discrepancies of the outboard separatrix position, and the outer strike-point position inferred from Thomson Scattering and Infrared camera data are much improved beyond the routine equilibrium reconstruction, whereas the discrepancy of the inner strike-point position is similar.
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| 6. |
- Aslanyan, V, et al.
(författare)
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Gyrokinetic simulations of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes excited by energetic ions and external antennas on the Joint European Torus
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 59:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) has been used to study toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) in high-performance plasmas. Experiments performed at the Joint European Torus (JET), where TAEs were driven by energetic particles arising from neutral beams, ion cyclotron resonant heating, and resonantly excited by dedicated external antennas, have been simulated. Modes driven by populations of energetic particles are observed, matching the TAE frequency seen with magnetic probes in JET experiments. A synthetic antenna, composed of one toroidal and two neighboring poloidal harmonics has been used to probe the modes' damping rates and quantify mechanisms for this damping in GTC simulations. This method was also applied to frequency and damping rate measurements of stable TAEs made by the Alfven eigenmode active diagnostic in these discharges.
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| 7. |
- Baron-Wiechec, A., et al.
(författare)
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Thermal desorption spectrometry of beryllium plasma facing tiles exposed in the JET tokamak
- 2018
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Ingår i: Fusion engineering and design. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA. - 0920-3796 .- 1873-7196. ; 133, s. 135-141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The phenomena of retention and de-trapping of deuterium (D) and tritium (T) in plasma facing components (PFC) and supporting structures must be understood in order to limit or control total T inventory in larger future fusion devices such as ITER, DEMO and commercial machines. The goal of this paper is to present details of the thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS) system applied in total fuel retention assessment of PFC at the Joint European Torus (JET). Examples of TDS results from beryllium (Be) wall tile samples exposed to JET plasma in PFC configuration mirroring the planned ITER PFC is shown for the first time. The method for quantifying D by comparison of results from a sample of known D content was confirmed acceptable. The D inventory calculations obtained from Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) and TDS agree well within an error associated with the extrapolation from very few data points to a large surface area.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Basiuk, V., et al.
(författare)
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Towards self-consistent plasma modelisation in presence of neoclassical tearing mode and sawteeth : effects on transport coefficients
- 2017
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 59:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The neoclassical tearing modes (NTM) increase the effective heat and particle radial transport inside the plasma, leading to a flattening of the electron and ion temperature and density profiles at a given location depending on the safety factor q rational surface (Hegna and Callen 1997 Phys. Plasmas 4 2940). In burning plasma such as in ITER, this NTM-induced increased transport could reduce significantly the fusion performance and even lead to a disruption. Validating models describing the NTM-induced transport in present experiment is thus important to help quantifying this effect on future devices. In this work, we apply an NTM model to an integrated simulation of current, heat and particle transport on JET discharges using the European transport simulator. In this model, the heat and particle radial transport coefficients are modified by a Gaussian function locally centered at the NTM position and characterized by a full width proportional to the island size through a constant parameter adapted to obtain the best simulations of experimental profiles. In the simulation, the NTM model is turned on at the same time as the mode is triggered in the experiment. The island evolution is itself determined by the modified Rutherford equation, using self-consistent plasma parameters determined by the transport evolution. The achieved simulation reproduces the experimental measurements within the error bars, before and during the NTM. A small discrepancy is observed on the radial location of the island due to a shift of the position of the computed q = 3/2 surface compared to the experimental one. To explain such small shift (up to about 12% with respect to the position observed from the experimental electron temperature profiles), sensitivity studies of the NTM location as a function of the initialization parameters are presented. First results validate both the transport model and the transport modification calculated by the NTM model.
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| 10. |
- Batistoni, P., et al.
(författare)
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14 MeV calibration of JET neutron detectors-phase 2 : in-vessel calibration
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 58:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new DT campaign (DTE2) is planned at JET in 2020 to minimize the risks of ITER operations. In view of DT operations, a calibration of the JET neutron monitors at 14 MeV neutron energy has been performed using a well calibrated 14 MeV neutron generator (NG) deployed, together with its power supply and control unit, inside the vacuum vessel by the JET remote handling system. The NG was equipped with two calibrated diamond detectors, which continuously monitored its neutron emission rate during the calibration, and activation foils which provided the time integrated yield. Cables embedded in the remote handling boom were used to power the neutron generator, the active detectors and pre-amplifier, and to transport the detectors' signal. The monitoring activation foils were retrieved at the end of each day for decay gamma-ray counting, and replaced by fresh ones. About 76 hours of irradiation, in 9 days, were needed with the neutron generator in 73 different poloidal and toroidal positions in order to calibrate the two neutron yield measuring systems available at JET, the U-235 fission chambers (KN1) and the inner activation system (KN2). The NG neutron emission rates provided by the monitoring detectors were in agreement within 3%. Neutronics calculations have been performed using MCNP code and a detailed model of JET to derive the response of the JET neutron detectors to DT plasma neutrons starting from the response to the NG neutrons, and taking into account the anisotropy of the neutron generator and all the calibration circumstances. These calculations have made use of a very detailed and validated geometrical description of the neutron generator and of the modified. MNCP neutron source subroutine producing neutron energy-angle distribution for the neutrons emitted by the NG. The KN1 calibration factor for a DT plasma has been determined with +/- 4.2%' experimental uncertainty. Corrections due to NG and remote handling effects and the plasma volume effect have been calculated by simulation modelling. The related additional uncertainties are difficult to estimate, however the results of the previous calibration in 2013 have demonstrated that such uncertainties due to modelling are globally <= +/- 3%. It has been found that the difference between KN1 response to DD neutrons and that to DT neutrons is within the uncertainties in the derived responses. KN2 has been calibrated using the Nb-93(n,2n)Nb-92m and Al-27(n,a)Na-24 activation reactions (energy thresholds 10 MeV and 5 MeV respectively). The total uncertainty on the calibration factors is +/- 6% for Nb-93(n,2n)Nb-92m and +/- 8% Al-27(n,a)Na-24 (1 sigma). The calibration factors of the two independent systems KN1 and KN2 will be validated during DT operations. The experience gained and the lessons learnt are presented and discussed in particular with regard to the 14 MeV neutron calibrations in ITER.
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