Relativistic Runaway Electrons Tokamak Plasmas Roger Jaspers
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Relativistic Runaway Electrons Tokamak Plasmas Roger Jaspers 1 C] /U i I'J • / -^ / S RELATIVISTIC RUNAWAY ELECTRONS IN TOKAMAK PLASMAS *DEO08O71036* Met een samenvatting in het Nederlands KS00192253X R: FI DE0O8071036 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, prof.dr. J.H. van Lint, voor een commissie aangewezen door het College van Dekanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 3 februari 1995 om 16.00 uur door Roger Jozef Elisabeth Jaspers geboren op 20 april 1968 te Wittem Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotoren: Prof.dr. N.J. Lopes Cardozo en Prof.dr. F.C. Schüller en de co-promotor: dr. K.H. Finken CIP-DATA Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag Jaspers, Roger Jozef Elisabeth Relativistic runaway electrons in tokamak plasmas / Roger Jozef Elisabeth Jaspers Proefschrift Technische Universiteit Eindhoven - Met een samenvatting in het Nederlands. ISBN 90-386-0474-2 The work described in this thesis was performed as part of a research programme of the 'Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie' (FOM) and 'Institut für Plasmaphysik, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH' with financial support from the 'Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek' (NWO), EURATOM and Forschungszentrum Jülich, and was carried out at the TEXTOR tokamak, Institut für Plasmaphysik, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. " If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" A. Einstein Octal n£CL TABLE OF CONTENTS 1A General Introduction 1 1.1 Nuclear Fusion 1 1.2 Runaway Electrons 2 1.3 This Thesis 3 1.4 Publications Related to this Thesis 5 1B The Tokamak 7 2 Runaway Electrons 13 2.1 The Phenomenon of Electron Runaway 13 2.2 Runaway Orbits 15 2.3 Energy Limits of Runaway Electrons 18 2.4 Runaway Transport 21 2.5 Wave Interaction 23 2.6 Runaway Diagnostics 23 Appendix A: The Drag Force 26 3 Synchrotron Radiation in a Tokamak 29 Theory, Measurements and Analysis 3.1 Introduction 29 3.2 Theory of Synchrotron Radiation 30 3.3 Synchrotron Radiation in Tokamaks 34 3.4 Detection of Synchrotrn Radiation at TEXTOR 38 3.5 Typical Example of a Measurement of Synchrotron Radiation in TEXTOR 39 3.6 Deduction of Runaway Parameters 41 4 Generation of Runaway Electrons 47 4.1 Introduction 47 4.2 Primary Geneiation 48 4.3 Secondary Generation 52 4.4 Experimental Investigation of Runaway Electron Generation in TEXTOR 55 4.5 Secondary Generation in ITER and TEXTOR 72 Experiments on Runaway Transport 77 5.1 Introduction 77 5.2 The Orbit Shift, and Confinement of New Born Low Energy Runaway Electrons 78 5.3 Confinement under different Plasma Conditions 82 5.3.1 Ohmic Discharges 83 5.3.2 Auxiliary Heated Discharges 86 5.3.3 Sawteeth 90 5.4 Confinement of Runaway Electrons in Stochastic Fields 93 5.5 Summary of the Runaway Transport Results 101 Pitch Angle Scattering of High Energy Runaway Electrons 103 6.1 Introduction 103 6.2 Summary of the Synchrotron Radiation Observations 104 6.3 Model for the Pitch Angle of Runaway Electrons 105 6.4 Comparison to Experiment 112 6.5 Including the Runaway-Field Ripple Interaction in the Model 112 6.6 Influence on previous Results 118 6.7 Observation of a Fast Pitch Angle Scattering Event 120 6.8 A Possible Mechanism for the Fast Pitch Angle Scattering 125 6.9 Discussion 129 Runaways and Disruptions 131 7.1 Introduction 131 7.2 Description of a Maj or Disruption 132 7.3 Measurements of Infrred Radiation during Disruptions 133 7.4 Runaway Electron Parameters 137 7.5 Implications for ITER 146 7.6 Conclusions 152 References 153 Summary Samenvatting Dankwoord Curriculum Vitea CHAPTER 1A GENERAL INTRODUCTION For an outsider, the title of this work 'relativLtic runaway electrons in tokamak plasmas' perhaps does not contain a single familiar word. For an insider it is obvious that here is meant research into one of the most interesting phenomena in the most common state of matter in the universe, in the most successful experimental device for the most promising solution of the most pressing problem of the next century. This chapter is meant as a bridge between insider and outsider. Apart from the three familiar states of matter (solid, liquid and gas), a fourth exists, which is less known, although it is the most common one in universe. This is the plasma, which can be defined as an ionized gas. The best known examples of a plasma are the sun and on earth, lightning. Plasma physics has become an important branch of physics because of the rich variety of phenomena that occur in this system of ions, electrons and neutrals in interaction with electro magnetic fields. The effect of 'electron runaway' is one of these phenomena. The runaway electrons constitute a small fraction of the plasma electrons, that are continuously accelerated to high energy. They are of fundamental interest for the description of plasmas, but have also, as will be shown in this thesis, important consequences for plasma physics applications. The sun is a gigantic plasma in which energy is produced by fusion reactions of light nuclei. A major effort is put into research to imitate this process under laboratory conditions. Succeeding in this would lead to an inexhaustable energy source. In this field of research, thermonuclear plasma physics, the experiments descibed in this thesis are performed. A short introduction about nuclear fusion, the runaway electrons, the experimental device, called the tokamak, and the motivation for the present work will be presented in the next sections. I.I Nuclear Fusion The world's continuously growing energy demand will lead to an energy crisis, unless new energy sources are developed. In view of the shrinking reserves of coal, oil and gas, the fossil fuels of which most of the energy is produced, a shortage of these conventional energy sources is expected half-way the next century. Even earlier the pollution of the environment as a result of the energy production becomes a problem. The increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuel can possibly result in the greenhouse effect, with a disastrous influence on the earth's climate. Nuclear fusion is one of the most promising solutions to this problem, as it is potentially an almost inexhaustible, comparatively clean and safe energy source. Fusion is the process based on the fact that if two light nuclei fuse into one heavier nucleus, mass is converted into energy. The 2 Chapter 1 reaction which is easiest to access, is the one between the nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium. A huge amount of energy is set free in this reaction: 1 kg of a D-T mixture produces as much energy as 10 million liters of oil! The raw materials are abundant: D is present in natural water and Li, from which T is bred, can be mined. Fusion energy can therefore supply the world's energy demand for thousands of years. The ash of the reaction, He, is a harmless inert gas. The neutron, the other reaction product, has the disadvantage to make the fusion reactor itself radioactive. Nevertheless, thanks to the relatively short half-life of the materials used (<100 years) this problem is much less severe than the radioactive waste of fission reactors. Another advantage of a fusion reactor compared to a fission reactor is the inherent safety. In the latter the risk of meltdown or other technical failures can cause a worldwide catastrophe, due to the enormous amount of energy stored in the reactor. Since the fuel is continuously flowed into a fusion reactor, only a very limited amount of energy is present in every phase of operation. A technical failure will always result in a direct termination of the burning, excluding the possibility of any calamity. By far the most promising results in the field of controlled nuclear fusion are achieved in the so-called tokamak. In this torus-shaped device the plasma is heated to temperatures of 100 million degrees. Such a high temperature is required to have a large enough probability that the colliding nuclei can overcome the repulsive Coulomb force and are able to fuse. The plasma is confined by a magnetic field to avoid contact with the material wall. Notwithstanding the worldwide effort and the impressable progress in thermonuclear research over the past 30 years, a fusion energy reactor is still a dream of the future. Although present tokamak experiments have produced up to 10 MW of fusion power no self sustained burning plasma is accomplished yet. The main problems to be addressed comprise: i) the confinement of energy and particles in a magnetic confinement device is more than one order of magnitude worse than predicted; ii) removal of the exhaust (helium) from the center of the reactor as too high concentrations of the ash will choke the fusion process; iii) extraction of the fusion power from the reactor. High power fluxes to material in contact with the plasma are not tolerable as this will evaporate surface material, thereby reduce the reactor lifetime and polluting the plasma; iv) the avoidance of so called major plasma disruptions, i.e instabilities in which the magnetic confinement of the plasma is suddenly lost. Such disruptions terminate the operation and can cause considerable damage to the device. 1.2 Runaway Electrons In the tokamak concept the confinement of the plasma is achieved by running a current through the plasma column. This plasma current is generated by an inductive electric field in the toroidal direction. The presence of this electric field leads to the phenomenon of electron 'runaway' [Kno- 79].