Runaway-electron model development and validation in tokamaks

Doktorsavhandling, 2021

Magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), in which a hot plasma at more than 100 million kelvin is confined using magnetic fields, is the most successful fusion energy concept developed to date. After decades of research, MCF devices designed to demonstrate a positive net energy output are being constructed, completing a crucial milestone on the path to making fusion a commercially viable energy source. Several hurdles remain on this path, however, and one of the most pressing issues concerns the sudden and rapid loss of confinement of the fusion plasma, known as a disruption. An undesirable consequence of disruptions is the acceleration of a fraction of the plasma electrons to relativistic energies which---if the electrons were to strike the device wall---could deposit a significant portion of the plasma energy on a small area, causing severe and potentially irreparable damage.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a robust simulation tool capable of accurately predicting the number of runaway electrons produced in different disruption scenarios. Since the evolution of the runaway electrons affects the background plasma, it is important to also allow quantities such as electron temperature, ion density, and electric field to evolve self-consistently in the simulation. This leads to a tightly coupled system of non-linear equations, and to solve it we have developed the numerical tool DREAM.

The complexity of the models used to simulate runaway electrons demands that the validity of the models is carefully evaluated by comparing predictions with existing experimental data. One of the most informative techniques for studying the dynamics of runaway electrons in MCF experiments utilises synchrotron radiation, and to facilitate direct comparison of runaway electron simulations with experiments we have developed the synthetic diagnostic framework SOFT. Using SOFT, we study runaway electrons in the ASDEX Upgrade and TCV fusion devices, and develop powerful techniques for  accurately extracting information about the location and momentum of runaway electrons.