On the minimum transport required to passively suppress runaway electrons in SPARC disruptions
R. A. Tinguely, István Pusztai, V.A. Izzo, K. Särkimäki, Tünde Fülöp, D. Garnier, R. Granetz, M. Hoppe, C. Paz-Soldan, Andréas Sundström, R. Sweeney
Abstract
Abstract In Izzo et al (2022 Nucl. Fusion 62 096029), state-of-the-art modeling of thermal and current quench (CQ) magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) coupled with a self-consistent evolution of runaway electron (RE) generation and transport showed that a non-axisymmetric ( n = 1) in-vessel coil could passively prevent RE beam formation during disruptions in SPARC, a compact high-field tokamak projected to achieve a fusion gain Q > 2 in DT plasmas. However, such suppression requires finite transport of REs within magnetic islands and re-healed flux surfaces; conservatively assuming zero transport in these regions leads to an upper bound of RE current <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">M</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">A</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> compared to <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>8.7</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">M</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">A</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of pre-disruption plasma current. Further investigation finds that core-localized electrons, within <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>r</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mo><</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.3</mml:mn> </mml:math> and with kinetic energies <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0.2</mml:mn> </mml:math> – <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>15</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">M</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">e</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">V</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , contribute most to the RE plateau formation. Yet only a relatively small amount of transport, i.e. a diffusion coefficient <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>18</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> , is needed in the core to fully mitigate these REs. Properly accounting for (a) the CQ electric field’s effect on RE transport in islands and (b) the contribution of significant RE currents to disruption MHD may help achieve this.