Runaway electron fluid model extension in JOREK and ITER relevant benchmarks

Journal article, 2024

We present details of recent extensions of the runaway electron (RE) fluid model implemented in the fusion magnetohydrodynamics code JOREK [M. Hoelzl et al., Nucl. Fusion 61, 065001 (2021)] to include the effects of partially ionized impurity species and deuterium neutrals. The model treats the interaction of runaway electrons with the background plasma via current-coupling. The code is separately benchmarked using ITER (https://www.iter.org/) relevant scenarios, with the GO [G. Papp et al., Nucl. Fusion 53, 123017 (2013)] code in relation to runaway electron beam formation and with the DINA [Khayrutdinov and Lukash, J. Comp. Phys. 109(2), 193–201 (1993)] code in relation to simultaneous runaway beam formation and vertical plasma motion. Benchmark results show a decent agreement in both the cases, which are also discussed.