• Open Access

Demonstration of Safe Termination of Megaampere Relativistic Electron Beams in Tokamaks

Cédric Reux, Carlos Paz-Soldan, Pavel Aleynikov, Vinodh Bandaru, Ondrej Ficker, Scott Silburn, Matthias Hoelzl, Stefan Jachmich, Nicholas Eidietis, Michael Lehnen, Sundaresan Sridhar, and JET contributors
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 175001 – Published 30 April 2021

Abstract

For the first time it is experimentally demonstrated on the JET tokamak that a combination of a low impurity concentration bulk plasma and large magnetohydrodynamic instabilities is able to suppress relativistic electron beams without measurable heat loads onto the plasma facing components. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the instability and modeling of the postinstability plasma confirm the prompt loss of runaways and the absence of regeneration during the final current collapse. These surprising findings motivate a new approach to dissipate runaway electrons generated during tokamak plasma disruptions.

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  • Received 19 September 2020
  • Revised 19 February 2021
  • Accepted 16 March 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.175001

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Plasma Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Cédric Reux*

  • CEA-IRFM, F-13108 Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France

Carlos Paz-Soldan

  • General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608 San Diego, California 92186-5608, USA and Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

Pavel Aleynikov

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Greifswald, Germany

Vinodh Bandaru

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany

Ondrej Ficker

  • Institute of Plasma Physics of the CAS, Za Slovankou 1782/3, 182 00 Praha 8, Czech Republic

Scott Silburn

  • CCFE, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 3DB, United Kingdom

Matthias Hoelzl

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany

Stefan Jachmich

  • ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 St. Paul Lez Durance, France

Nicholas Eidietis

  • General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608 San Diego, California 92186-5608, USA

Michael Lehnen

  • ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 St. Paul Lez Durance, France

Sundaresan Sridhar

  • CEA-IRFM, F-13108 Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France

JET contributors

  • *Corresponding author. cedric.reux@cea.fr
  • See the author list of “Overview of JET results for optimising ITER operation” by J. Mailloux et al. to be published in Nucl. Fus. Special issue: Overview and Summary Papers from the 28th Fusion Energy Conference (Nice, France, 10–15 May 2021).

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Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 17 — 30 April 2021

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