In 2021 JET exploited its unique capabilities to operate with T and D-T fuel with an ITER-like Be/W wall (JET-ILW). This second major JET D-T campaign (DTE2), after DTE1 in 1997, represented the culmination of a series of JET enhancements-new fusion diagnostics, new T injection capabilities, refurbishment of the T plant, increased auxiliary heating, in-vessel calibration of 14 MeV neutron yield monitors-as well as significant advances in plasma theory and modelling in the fusion community. DTE2 was complemented by a sequence of isotope physics campaigns encompassing operation in pure tritium at high T-NBI power. Carefully conducted for safe operation with tritium, the new T and D-T experiments used 1 kg of T (vs 100 g in DTE1), yielding the most fusion reactor relevant D-T plasmas to date and expanding our understanding of isotopes and D-T mixture physics. Furthermore, since the JET T and DTE2 campaigns occurred almost 25 years after the last major D-T tokamak experiment, it was also a strategic goal of the European fusion programme to refresh operational experience of a nuclear tokamak to prepare staff for ITER operation. The key physics results of the JET T and DTE2 experiments, carried out within the EUROfusion JET1 work package, are reported in this paper. Progress in the technological exploitation of JET D-T operations, development and validation of nuclear codes, neutronic tools and techniques for ITER operations carried out by EUROfusion (started within the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and continuing under the Horizon Europe FP) are reported in (Litaudon et al Nucl. Fusion accepted), while JET experience on T and D-T operations is presented in (King et al Nucl. Fusion submitted).
We present a novel method for efficient production of prototypes of microwave components by fused depositing modeling, also known as 3D plastic printing, and vapor deposition coating of a 1 μm copper layer. We demonstrate that the properties of the components follow the predicted performance for low power microwave propagation. The production method offers new opportunities for cheap and efficient production of mock-ups and prototypes of advanced-geometry components for tests with low-power microwaves.
Transport modelling of Joint European Torus (JET) dimensionless collisionality scaling experiments in various operational scenarios is presented. Interpretative simulations at a fixed radial position are combined with predictive JETTO simulations of temperatures and densities, using the TGLF transport model. The model includes electromagnetic effects and collisions as well as E ⃗ × B ⃗ shear in Miller geometry. Focus is on particle transport and the role of the neutral beam injection (NBI) particle source for the density peaking. The experimental 3-point collisionality scans include L-mode, and H-mode (D and H and higher beta D plasma) plasmas in a total of 12 discharges. Experimental results presented in (Tala et al 2017 44th EPS Conf. ) indicate that for the H-mode scans, the NBI particle source plays an important role for the density peaking, whereas for the L-mode scan, the influence of the particle source is small. In general, both the interpretative and predictive transport simulations support the experimental conclusions on the role of the NBI particle source for the 12 JET discharges.
In this paper, we analyze heat transport in the JET tokamak using data from its high resolution ECE diagnostic and analyses based on the transfer entropy (TE). The analysis reveals that heat transport is not smooth and continuous, but is characterized by 'trapping regions' separated by `minor transport barriers'. Meat may 'jump over' these barriers and when the heating power is raised, this 'jumping' behavior becomes more prominent. To check that our results are relevant for global heat transport, we deduced an effective diffusion coefficient from the TE results. Both its value and overall radial variation are consistent with heat diffusivities reported in literature. The detailed radial structure of the effective diffusion coefficient was shown to be linked to the mentioned minor transport barriers.
The Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostic will be a primary diagnostic for measuring the dynamics of the confined fusion born alpha particles in ITER and will be the only diagnostic for alphas below 1.7 MeV [1]. The probe beam of the CTS diagnostic comes from a 60 GHz 1 MW gyrotron operated in a ~100 Hz modulation sequence. In the plasma, the probing beam will be scattered off fluctuations primarily due to the dynamics of the ions. Seven fixed receiver mirrors will pick up scattered radiation (the CTS signal) from seven measurement volumes along the probe beam covering the cross section of the plasma. The diagnostic is planned to provide a temporal resolution of ~100 ms and a spatial resolution of ~a/4 in the core and ~a/20 near the plasma edge where a = 2.0 m is the nominal minor radius of ITER. The front-end quasi-optics will be installed in an equatorial port plug (EPP#12). A particular challenge will be to pass the probing beam through the fundamental electron cyclotron resonance, which is located in the port plug (R=10.3 m) for the nominal magnetic field Bt = 5.3 T. Hence, particular mitigation actions against arcing have to be applied. The status of the design and specific challenges will be discussed.
In this study, beryllium tiles from Joint European Torus (JET) vacuum vessel wall were analysed and compared regarding their position in the vacuum vessel and differences in the exploitation conditions during two campaigns of ITER-Like-Wall (ILW) in 2011-2012 (ILW1) and 2013-2014 (ILW2) Tritium content in beryllium samples were assessed. Two methods were used to measure tritium content in the samples - dissolution under controlled conditions and tritium thermal desorption. Prior to desorption and dissolution experiments, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were used to study structure and chemical composition of plasma-facing-surfaces of the beryllium samples. Experimental results revealed that tritium content in the samples is in range of 2.10(11)-2.10(13) tritium atoms per square centimetre of the surface area with its highest content in the samples from the outer wall of the vacuum vessel (up to 1.9.10(13) atoms/cm(2) in ILW1 campaign and 2.4.10(13) atoms/cm(2) in ILW2). The lowest content of tritium was found in the upper part of the vacuum vessel (2.0.10(12) atoms/cm(2) and 2.0.10(11) atoms/cm(2) in ILW1 and ILW2, respectively). Results obtained from scanning electron microscopy has shown that surface morphology is different within single tile, however if to compare two campaigns main tendencies remains similar.
Results from two different sets of JET experiments are presented.In experiments in which toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) localized at different radial locations had the same frequencies and toroidal mode numbers, the occurrence of enhanced losses after the excitation of TAEs in the core of the plasma was observed.On the contrary, enhanced losses were not observed if the TAEs localized at different radial locations had different frequencies and toroidal mode numbers.Numerical modeling indicates that, in the first set of experiments, the enhanced losses were caused by a combined effect of the TAEs localized at different radial locations.The TAEs localized in the plasma core transported energetic ions from the core to outer regions of the plasma.Then, the TAEs localized in outer regions of the plasma interacted with these ions just transported by the core-localized TAEs causing a further radial displacement of the ions to the plasma edge.This process eventually ends up causing the loss of the resonant ions.In the second set of experiments, it was found that TAEs localized in the plasma core and in outer regions did not interact with the same ions and so no enhanced losses were measured.Sheared profiles of the safety factor combined with flat mass density profiles lead to larger differences on the frequencies of the TAEs localized at different radial locations, eventually avoiding loss of energetic ions through the described mechanism.
The first divertor was installed in the JET machine between 1992 and 1994 and was operated with carbon tiles and then beryllium tiles in 1994-5. Post-mortem studies after these first experiments demonstrated that most of the impurities deposited in the divertor originate in the main chamber, and that asymmetric deposition patterns generally favouring the inner divertor region result from drift in the scrape-off layer. A new monolithic divertor structure was installed in 1996 which produced heavy deposition at shadowed areas in the inner divertor corner, which is where the majority of the tritium was trapped by co-deposition during the deuterium-tritium experiment in 1997. Different divertor geometries have been tested since such as the Gas-Box and High-Delta divertors; a principle objective has been to predict plasma behaviour, transport and tritium retention in ITER. Transport modelling experiments were carried out at the end of four campaigns by puffing C-13-labelled methane, and a range of diagnostics such as quartz-microbalance and rotating collectors have been installed to add time resolution to the post-mortem analyses. The study of material migration after D-D and D-T campaigns clearly revealed important consequences of fuel retention in the presence of carbon walls. They gave a strong impulse to make a fundamental change of wall materials. In 2010 the carbon divertor and wall tiles were removed and replaced with tiles with Be or W surfaces for the ITER-Like Wall Project.
The aim of this paper is to present a signal processing algorithm that, applied to the raw Locked Mode signal, allows us to obtain a disruption indicator in principle exploitable on different tokamaks. A common definition of such an indicator for different machines would facilitate the development of portable systems for disruption prediction, which is becoming of increasingly importance for the next tokamak generations. Moreover, the indicator allows us to overcome some intrinsic problems in the diagnostic system such as drift and offset. The behavior of the proposed indicator as disruption predictor, based on crossing optimized thresholds of the signal amplitude, has been analyzed using data of both JET and ASDEX Upgrade experiments. A thorough analysis of the disruption prediction performance shows how the indicator is able to recover some missed and tardy detections of the raw signal. Moreover, it intervenes and corrects premature or even wrong alarms due to, e.g., drifts and/or offsets.
The primary purpose of the collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic at ITER is to measure the properties of fast-ion populations, in particular those of fusion-born alpha-particles. Based on the present design of the diagnostic, we compute and fit synthetic CTS spectra for the ITER baseline plasma scenario, including the effects of noise, refraction, multiple fast-ion populations, and uncertainties on nuisance parameters. As part of this, we developed a model for CTS that incorporates spatial effects of frequency-dependent refraction. While such effects will distort the measured ITER CTS spectra, we demonstrate that the true alpha-particle densities can nevertheless be recovered to within similar to 10% from noisy synthetic spectra, using existing fitting methods that do not take these spatial effects into account. Under realistic operating conditions, we thus find the predicted performance of the ITER CTS system to be consistent with the ITER measurement requirements of a 20% accuracy on inferred alpha-particle density profiles at 100ms time resolution.
Data on erosion and melting of beryllium upper limiter tiles, so-called dump plates (DP), are presented for all three campaigns in the JET tokamak with the ITER-like wall. High-resolution images of the upper wall of JET show clear signs of flash melting on the ridge of the roofshaped tiles. The melt layers move in the poloidal direction from the inboard to the outboard tile, ending on the last DP tile with an upward going waterfall-like melt structure. Melting was caused mainly by unmitigated plasma disruptions. During three ILW campaigns, around 15% of all 12376 plasma pulses were catalogued as disruptions. Thermocouple data from the upper dump plates tiles showed a reduction in energy delivered by disruptions with fewer extreme events in the third campaign, ILW-3, in comparison to ILW-1 and ILW-2. The total Be erosion assessed via precision weighing of tiles retrieved from JET during shutdowns indicated the increasing mass loss across campaigns of up to 0.6 g from a single tile. The mass of splashed melted Be on the upper walls was also estimated using the high-resolution images of wall components taken after each campaign. The results agree with the total material loss estimated by tile weighing (similar to 130 g). Morphological and structural analysis performed on Be melt layers revealed a multilayer structure of re-solidified material composed mainly of Be and BeO with some heavy metal impurities Ni, Fe, W. IBA analysis performed across the affected tile ridge in both poloidal and toroidal direction revealed a low D concentration, in the range 1-4 x 10(17) D atoms cm(-2).
EDGE2D-EIRENE (the ‘code’) simulations show that radial electric field, Er, in the near scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamaks can have large variations leading to a strong local E × B shear greatly exceeding that in the core region. This was pointed out in simulations of JET plasmas with varying divertor geometry, where the magnetic configuration with larger predicted near SOL Er was found to have lower H-mode power threshold, suggesting that turbulence suppression in the SOL by local E × B shear can be a player in the L–H transition physics (Delabie et al 2015 42nd EPS Conf. on Plasma Physics (Lisbon, Portugal, 22–26 June 2015) paper O3.113 (http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2015PAP/pdf/O3.113.pdf), Chankin et al 2017 Nucl. Mater. Energy 12 273). Further code modeling of JET plasmas by changing hydrogen isotopes (H–D–T) showed that the magnitude of the near SOL Er is lower in H cases in which the H-mode threshold power is higher (Chankin et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 59 045012). From the experiment it is also known that hydrogen plasmas have poorer particle and energy confinement than deuterium plasmas, consistent with the code simulation results showing larger particle diffusion coefficients at the plasma edge, including SOL, in hydrogen plasmas (Maggi et al 2018 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 60 014045). All these experimental observations and code results support the hypothesis that the near SOL E × B shear can have an impact on the plasma confinement. The present work analyzes neutral ionization patterns of JET plasmas with different hydrogen isotopes in L-mode cases with fixed input power and gas puffing rate, and its impact on target electron temperature, Te, and SOL Er. The possibility of a self-feeding mechanism for the increase in the SOL Er via the interplay between poloidal E × B drift and target Te is discussed. It is also shown that reducing anomalous turbulent transport coefficients, particle diffusion and electron and ion heat conductivities, leads to higher peak target Te and larger Er, suggesting the possibility of a positive feedback loop, under an implicitly made assumption that the E × B shear in the SOL is capable of suppressing turbulence.
Beryllium limiter marker tiles were exposed to plasma in the Joint European Torus to diagnose the erosion of main chamber wall materials. A limiter marker tile consists of a beryllium coating layer (7-9 mu m) on the top of bulk beryllium, with a nickel interlayer (2-3 mu m) between them. The thickness variation of the beryllium coating layer, after exposure to plasma, could indicate the erosion measured by ion beam analysis with backscattering spectrometry. However, interpretations from broad beam backscattering spectra were limited by the non-uniform surface structures. Therefore, micro-ion beam analysis (mu-IBA) with 3 MeV proton beam for Elastic back scattering spectrometry (EBS) and PIXE was used to scan samples. The spot size was in the range of 3-10 mu m. Scanned areas were analysed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well. Combining results from mu-IBA and SEM, we obtained local spectra from carefully chosen areas on which the surface structures were relatively uniform. Local spectra suggested that the scanned area (approximate to 600 mu m x 1200 mu m) contained regions with serious erosion with only 2-3 mu m coating beryllium left, regions with intact marker tile, and droplets with 90% beryllium. The nonuniform erosion, droplets mainly formed by beryllium, and the possible mixture of beryllium and nickel were the major reasons that confused interpretation from broad beam EBS.
Hot spots on the divertor tiles at JET result in overestimation of the tile surface temperature which causes unnecessary termination of pulses. However, the appearance of hot spots can also indicate the condition of the divertor tile surfaces. To analyse the behaviour of the hot spots in the outer divertor tiles of JET, a simple image processing algorithm is developed. The algorithm isolates areas of bright pixels in the camera image and compares them to previously identified hot spots. The activity of the hot spots is then linked to values of other signals and parameters in the same time intervals. The operation of the detection algorithm was studied in a limited pulse range with high hot spot activity on the divertor tiles 5, 6 and 7. This allowed us to optimise the values of the controlling parameters. Then, the wider applicability of the method has been demonstrated by the analysis of the hot spot behaviour in a whole experimental campaign.
The impurity concentration in the tokamak divertor plasma is a necessary input for predictive scaling of divertor detachment, however direct measurements from existing tokamaks in different divertor plasma conditions are limited. To address this, we have applied a recently developed spectroscopic N II line ratio technique for measuring the N concentration in the divertor to a range of H-mode and L-mode plasma from the ASDEX Upgrade and JET tokamaks, respectively. The results from both devices show that as the power crossing the separatrix, Psep, is increased under otherwise similar core conditions (e.g. density), a higher N concentration is required to achieve the same detachment state. For example, the N concentrations at the start of detachment increase from ≈ 2% to ≈ 9% as Psep is increased from ≈ 2.5 MW to ≈ 7 MW. These results tentatively agree with scaling law predictions (e.g. Goldston et al.) motivating a further study examining the parameters which affect the N concentration required to reach detachment. Finally, the N concentrations from spectroscopy and the ratio of D and N gas valve fluxes agree within experimental uncertainty only when the vessel surfaces are fully-loaded with N.
In ITER and DEMO, various control objectives related to plasma control must be simultaneously achieved by the plasma control system (PCS), in both normal operation as well as off-normal conditions. The PCS must act on off-normal events and deviations from the target scenario, since certain sequences (chains) of events can precede disruptions. It is important that these decisions are made while maintaining a coherent prioritization between the real-time control tasks to ensure high-performance operation. In this paper, a generic architecture for task-based integrated plasma control is proposed. The architecture is characterized by the separation of state estimation, event detection, decisions and task execution among different algorithms, with standardized signal interfaces. Central to the architecture are a plasma state monitor and supervisory controller. In the plasma state monitor, discrete events in the continuous-valued plasma state are modeled using finite state machines. This provides a high-level representation of the plasma state. The supervisory controller coordinates the execution of multiple plasma control tasks by assigning task priorities, based on the finite states of the plasma and the pulse schedule. These algorithms were implemented on the TCV digital control system and integrated with actuator resource management and existing state estimation algorithms and controllers. The plasma state monitor on TCV can track a multitude of plasma events, related to plasma current, rotating and locked neoclassical tearing modes, and position displacements. In TCV experiments on simultaneous control of plasma pressure, safety factor profile and NTMs using electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and current drive (ECCD), the supervisory controller assigns priorities to the relevant control tasks. The tasks are then executed by feedback controllers and actuator allocation management. This work forms a significant step forward in the ongoing integration of control capabilities in experiments on TCV, in support of tokamak reactor operation.
In this paper we validate the finite element code RAPLICASOL, which models radiofrequency wave propagation in edge plasmas near ICRF antennas, against calculations with the TOPICA code. We compare the output of both codes for the ASDEX Upgrade 2-strap antenna, and for a 4-strap WEST-like antenna. Although RAPLICASOL requires considerably fewer computational resources than TOPICA, we find that the predicted quantities of experimental interest (including reflection coefficients, coupling resistances, - and -matrix entries, optimal matching settings, and even radiofrequency electric fields) are in good agreement provided we are careful to use the same geometry in both codes.
The effect of fast ions on turbulent particle transport, driven by ion temperature gradient (ITG)/trapped electron mode turbulence, is studied. Two neutral beam injection (NBI) heated JET discharges in different regimes are analyzed at the radial position ρ t = 0.6, one of them an L-mode and the other one an H-mode discharge. Results obtained from the computationally efficient fluid model EDWM and the gyro-fluid model TGLF are compared to linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic GENE simulations as well as the experimentally obtained density peaking. In these models, the fast ions are treated as a dynamic species with a Maxwellian background distribution. The dependence of the zero particle flux density gradient (peaking factor) on fast ion density, temperature and corresponding gradients, is investigated. The simulations show that the inclusion of a fast ion species has a stabilizing influence on the ITG mode and reduces the peaking of the main ion and electron density profiles in the absence of sources. The models mostly reproduce the experimentally obtained density peaking for the L-mode discharge whereas the H-mode density peaking is significantly underpredicted, indicating the importance of the NBI particle source for the H-mode density profile.
Recent achievements in studies of the effects of ICRF (Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies) power on the SOL (Scrape-Off Layer) and PWI (Plasma Wall Interactions) in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), Alcator C-Mod, and JET-ILW are reviewed. Capabilities to diagnose and model the effect of DC biasing and associated impurity production at active antennas and on magnetic field connections to antennas are described. The experiments show that ICRF near-fields can lead not only to E x B convection, but also to modifications of the SOL density, which for Alcator C-Mod are limited to a narrow region near antenna. On the other hand, the SOL density distribution along with impurity sources can be tailored using local gas injection in AUG and JET-ILW with a positive effect on reduction of impurity sources. The technique of RF image current cancellation at antenna limiters was successfully applied in AUG using the 3-strap AUG antenna and extended to the 4-strap Alcator C-Mod field-aligned antenna. Multiple observations confirmed the reduction of the impact of ICRF on the SOL and on total impurity production when the ratio of the power of the central straps to the total antenna power is in the range 0.6 < P-cen / P-total < 0.8. Near-field calculations indicate that this fairly robust technique can be applied to the ITER ICRF antenna, enabling the mode of operation with reduced PWI. On the contrary, for the A2 antenna in JET-ILW the technique is hindered by RF sheaths excited at the antenna septum. Thus, in order to reduce the effect of ICRF power on PWI in a future fusion reactor, the antenna design has to be optimized along with design of plasmafacing components.
A novel multiphysics methodology for the computation of realistic plasma neutron sources has been developed. The method is based on state-of-the-art plasma transport and neutron spectrum calculations, coupled with a Monte Carlo neutron transport code, bridging the gap between plasma physics and neutronics. In the paper two JET neutronics tokamak models are used to demonstrate the application of the developed plasma neutron sources and validate them. Diagnostic data for the record JET D discharge 92436 are used as input for the TRANSP code, modelling neutron emission in two external plasma heating scenarios, namely using only neutral beam injection and a combination of the latter and ion cyclotron resonance heating. Neutron spectra, based on plasma transport results, are computed using the DRESS code. The developed PLANET code package is employed to generate plasma neutron source descriptions and couple them with the MCNP code. The effects of using the developed sources in neutron transport calculations on the response of JET neutron diagnostic systems is studied and compared to the results obtained with a generic plasma neutron source. It is shown that, although there are significant differences in the emissivity profiles, spectra shape and anisotropy between the neutron sources, the integral response of the time-resolved ex-vessel neutron detectors is largely insensitive to source changes, with major relative deviations of up to several percent. However it is calculated that, due to the broadening of neutron spectra as a consequence of external plasma heating, larger differences may occur in activation of materials which have threshold reactions located at DD neutron peak energies. The PLANET plasma neutron source computational methodology is demonstrated to be suitable for detailed neutron source effect studies on JET during DT experiments and can be applied to ITER analyses.