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Investigations of atomic and molecular processes of NBI-heated discharges in the MAST Upgrade Super-X divertor with implications for reactors

Author
Abstract

This experimental study presents an in-depth investigation of the performance of the MAST-U Super-X divertor during NBI-heated operation (up to 2.5 MW) focussing on volumetric ion sources and sinks as well as power losses during detachment. The particle balance and power loss analysis revealed the crucial role of Molecular Activated Recombination and Dissociation (MAR and MAD) ion sinks in divertor particle and power balance, which remain pronounced in the change from ohmic to higher power (NBI heated) L-mode conditions. The importance of MAR and MAD remains with double the absorbed NBI heating. MAD results in significant power dissipation (up to ~20% of P sol), mostly in the cold (T e <5 eV) detached region. Theoretical and experimental evidence is found for the potential contribution of D - to MAR and MAD, which warrants further study. These results suggest that MAR and MAD can be relevant in higher power conditions than the ohmic conditions studied previously. Post-processing reactor-scale simulations suggests that MAR and MAD can play a significant role in divertor physics and synthetic diagnostic signals of reactor-scale devices, which are currently underestimated in exhaust simulations. This raises implications for the accuracy of reactor-scale divertor simulations of particularly tightly baffled (alternative) divertor configurations.

Year of Publication
2024
Journal
Nuclear Fusion
Volume
64
Issue
8
Number of Pages
086050
Publisher
IOP Publishing
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.08586
DOI
10.1088/1741-4326/ad5851
PId
02b9303fb732c0b72151a07adf5a353b
Alternate Journal
Nucl. Fusion
Label
OA
Journal Article
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