Showing papers by "R. K. Fisher published in 1999"

Energetic particle transport and alpha driven instabilities in advanced confinement DT plasmas on TFTR

Abstract: The article reviews the physics of fusion alpha particles and energetic neutral beam ions studied in the final phase of TFTR operation, with an emphasis on observations in reversed magnetic shear (RS) and enhanced reversed shear (ERS) DT plasmas. Energy resolved measurements of the radial profiles of confined, trapped alphas in RS plasmas exhibit reduced core alpha density with increasing alpha energy, in contrast to plasmas with normal monotonic shear. The measured profiles are consistent with predictions of increased alpha loss due to stochastic ripple diffusion and increased first orbit loss in RS plasmas. In experiments in which a short tritium beam pulse is injected into a deuterium RS plasma, the measured DT neutron emission is lower than standard predictions assuming first orbit loss and stochastic ripple diffusion of the beam ions. A microwave reflectometer measured the spatial localization of low toroidal mode number (n), alpha driven toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) in DT RS discharges. Although the observed ballooning character of the n = 4 mode is consistent with predictions of a kinetic MHD stability code, the observed antiballooning nature of the n = 2 mode is not. Furthermore, the modelling does not show the observed strong dependence of mode frequency on n. These alpha driven TAEs do not cause measurable alpha loss in TFTR. Other Alfven frequency modes with n = 2-4 seen in both DT and DD ERS and RS discharges are localized to the weak magnetic shear region near qmin. In 10-20% of DT discharges, normal low n MHD activity causes alpha loss at levels above the first orbit loss rate.

Operation of the TFTR pellet charge exchange diagnostic in the pulse counting mode during H+ radio frequency minority heating

Abstract: The pellet charge exchange technique on TFTR has been used primarily to obtain active charge exchange measurements using a high-energy (0.5–4.0 MeV) neutral particle analyzer (NPA) in conjunction with impurity pellet injection (Li and B) with the scintillator-photomultiplier detector system operated in the current mode. While passive measurements using pulse counting were also obtained using this instrumentation, operation in this mode was very restrictive with pulse counting rates limited to less than ∼10 kHz in the absence of any significant neutron and gamma induced background signal. An upgrade to a specialized pulse counting capability which was developed by the Ioffe Institute was implemented which consisted of CsI(Tl) scintillators having features designed to minimize signals induced by background neutron and gamma rays and 16-channel pulse height analysis electronics on each of the eight NPA energy channels. Passive measurements of rf-driven energetic hydrogen minority ions which served to verify ...