SMuK 2023 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 12: Poster II

P 12.43: Poster

Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 17:30–19:00, HSZ EG

Interaction of relativistic electrons with MHD activity during disruptions — •Hannes Bergstroem, Konsta Särkimäki, and Matthias Hoelzl — Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching b.~M., Germany

In spite of all the promise that fusion energy holds, there are several obstacles that one must overcome before commercially viable fusion reactors can be realized. One issue that looks to be ever more prominent in future tokamak reactor designs such as ITER is the type of operational failure known as disruptions, triggered by a sudden loss of plasma confinement. During these off-normal events it is possible for electrons to be accelerated towards relativistic velocities. These highly energetic particles could then accumulate and strike the wall, causing sub-surface melting which is difficult to repair. As such, disruption events could potentially put reactors out of commission for extended periods of time, which cannot be tolerated. In order to fully understand the evolution and consequences of disruptions it is vital that the dynamics of the relativistic electrons are studied in detail, which includes aspects such as how they are generated, to what extent they interact with the bulk plasma, what the transport looks like and where they eventually strike the wall. This work aims to answer these questions by extending the non-linear MHD code JOREK to kinetic particle-in-cell treatment for the phase-space evolution of relativistic electrons. In addition we use ray-tracing methods to determine where the particles intersect a 3D wall, allowing us to estimate localized heat loads.