Speaker
Description
The SPARC tokamak is now under construction in Devens, Massachusetts, USA, and its highest performing “Primary Reference Discharge” (PRD) is expecting >10 MW of ICRF heating power, >20 MW of alpha power, and >100 MW of DT fusion power [Creely JPP 2020]. Fast ion (FI) driven MHD instabilities, specifically Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs), have been investigated for the PRD with a variety of stability codes; these include the linear eigenvalue solver NOVA-K [Tinguely NF 2024 (submitted)], nonlinear initial value code MEGA [Gonzalez-Martin (this meeting)], and non/linear gyrofluid code FAR3D [Nichols (this meeting)], all validated with each other. This presentation will explore MHD-induced FI transport and its impact on plasma performance: Particle following codes ASCOT and ORBIT-Kick are used to explore FI redistribution in phase space, and their results are compared. The “kick matrices” from ORBIT-Kick are then used to better quantify FI diffusion in TRANSP + TORIC transport simulations. TRANSP is run in both interpretive and predictive modes to evaluate the effects on electron vs ion heating, plasma transport and confinement, total fusion output, and more. Initial findings suggest that a single, large amplitude TAE, located around mid radius, might degrade fusion power by only ~2%.
Supported in part by Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
| Presentation type | Oral |
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