AbstractsPhysics

Calculations of neutron energy spectra from fast ion reactions in tokamak fusion plasmas

by Jacob Eriksson




Institution: Uppsala University
Department:
Year: 2010
Keywords: fusion; plasma diagnostics; neutron spectroscopy; fast ions; line of sight; Master Programme in Engineering Physics; Civilingenjörsprogrammet i teknisk fysik; teknik; Technology
Record ID: 1344871
Full text PDF: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-120425


Abstract

A MATLAB code for calculating neutron energy spectra from JET discharges was developed. The code uses the fuel ion distribution calculated by the computer code SELFO to generate the spectrum through a Monte-Carlo simulation. The calculated spectra were then compared against experimental results from the neutron spectrometer TOFOR. In the calculations, the exact orbits of the fuel ions are taken into account, in order to investigate what effects this has on the spectrum. The reason for this is that, for certain plasma heating scenarios, large populations of fast fuel ions are formed. These fast ions may have Larmor radii of the order of decimeters, which is comparable to the width of the sight line of TOFOR, and may therefore affect the recorded neutron spectrum. A JET discharge with both NBI and 3rd harmonic ICRF heating was analyzed. The results show that the details of the line of sight of the detector indeed affects the neutron spectrum. This effect is probably important for other diagnostics techniques, such as gamma-ray spectroscopy and neutral particle analysis, as well. Good agreement with TOFOR data is observed, but not for the exact same time slice of the discharge, which leaves some questions yet to be investigated.