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A method to generate modeled neutron spectra from bulk and fast ion distributions simulated by TRANSP has been developed. In this paper, modeled data generated from fuel ion distrubutions modeled with TRANSP is compared to measured data from two neutron spectrometers with different lines of sight; TOFOR with a radial one and the MPRu with a tangential one. The information obtained from the analysis of the measured neutron spectra such as the relative intensity of the emission from different ion populations places additional constraints on the simulation and can be used to adjust the parameters of the simulation.

A detailed description of the 14MeV neutron emission in plasmas heated by neutral beam injection has been carried out by coupling Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron emission spectrum with TRANSP modelling of the beam ion energy distributions. The model is used to study tritium beam injection experiments of the JET trace tritium campaign for internal transport barrier (ITB) and H-mode discharges. For ITB discharges, the measured neutron emission spectrum is well described by modelling using as input the beam ion distribution calculated with TRANSP. For H mode discharges the neutron spectrum can be reproduced only if high energy tritons are lost from the plasma, suggesting the possible role of low frequency tearing modes on the beam ions. The presented results are of relevance for tritium beam transport studies in trace tritium experiments and, more generally, for deuterium and tritium transport studies in high power experiments using neutron emission spectroscopy

The progress on high-rate event recording of data is taken as starting point to revisit the design of fusion neutron spectrometers based on the TOF (time-of-flight) technique. The study performed was aimed at how such instruments for optimized rate (TOFOR) can be further developed to enhance the plasma diagnostic capabilities based on measurement of the 2.5 MeV dd neutron emission from D plasmas, especially the weak spectral components that depend on discrimination of extraneous events. This paper describes a design (TOFOR II) adapted for use with digital wave form recording of all detector pulses providing information on both amplitude (pulse height) and timing. The results of simulations are presented and the performance enhancement is assessed in comparison to the present. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

A detailed description of the 14 MeV neutron emission in plasmas heated by neutral beam injection has been carried out by coupling Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron emission spectrum with TRANSP modelling of the beam ion energy distributions. The model is used to study tritium beam injection experiments of the JET trace tritium campaign for internal transport barrier (ITB) and H-mode discharges. For ITB discharges, the measured neutron emission spectrum is well described by modelling using as input the beam ion distribution calculated with TRANSP. For H mode discharges the neutron spectrum can be reproduced only if high energy tritons are lost from the plasma, suggesting the possible role of low frequency tearing modes on the beam ions. The presented results are of relevance for tritium beam transport studies in trace tritium experiments and, more generally, for deuterium and tritium transport studies in high power experiments using neutron emission spectroscopy

The straight field line mirror (SFLM) concept is aiming towards a steady-state compact fusion neutron source. Besides the possibility for steady state operation for a year or more, the geometry is chosen to avoid high loads on materials and plasma facing components. A comparatively small fusion hybrid device with "semi-poor" plasma confinement (with a low fusion Q factor) may be developed for industrial transmutation and energy production from spent nuclear fuel. This opportunity arises from a large fission to fusion energy multiplication ratio, Qr=Pfis/P fus>>1. The upper bound on Qr is primarily determined by geometry and reactor safety. For the SFLM, the upper bound is Qr≈150, corresponding to a neutron multiplicity of k eff=0.97. Power production in a mirror hybrid is predicted for a substantially lower electron temperature than the requirement T e≈10 keV for a fusion reactor. Power production in the SFLM seems possible with Q≈0.15, which is 10 times lower than typically anticipated for hybrids (and 100 times smaller than required for a fusion reactor). This relaxes plasma confinement demands, and broadens the range for use of plasmas with supra-thermal ions in hybrid reactors. The SFLM concept is based on a mirror machine stabilized by qudrupolar magnetic fields and large expander tanks beyond the confinement region. The purpose of the expander tanks is to distribute axial plasma loss flow over a sufficiently large area so that the receiving plates can withstand the heat. Plasma stability is not relying on a plasma flow into the expander regions. With a suppressed plasma flow into the expander tanks, a possibility arise for higher electron temperature. A brief presentation will be given on basic theory for the SFLM with plasma stability and electron temperature issues, RF heating computations with sloshing ion formation, neutron transport computations with reactor safety margins and material load estimates, magnetic coil designs as well as a discu, QC 20130218

QC 20131014

The cross section for d+3He elastic scattering has been determined for the angular range 20-180° (CM) for beam energies E d = 0.05 to 11 MeV through combined use of experimental data, Coulomb scattering and extrapolations. The results are used to study, for instance, how the cross section is affected by nuclear interaction contributions. Implications of these results on the calculation of knock on effects in ( 3He)D plasmas subjected to RF heating and their manifestations in the spectrum of the d + d fusion neutron emission are discussed. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The neutron emission from (3He)D plasmas with RF heating is calculated using a model that includes supra-thermal (knock-on) components of the deuteron population. The RF generation of fast 3He ions is described and the knock-on components were determined with the help of newly derived 3He + d scattering cross sections. Results are presented on the neutron emission spectrum and its contributions from different deuteron velocity components. It is shown that knock-on leaves an observable feature in the spectrum with a clear dependence on absorbed RF power. The importance of the nuclear interaction in the elastic cross section is demonstrated. The results represent a step forward in the use of neutron emission spectroscopy to diagnose fusion plasmas with minority supra-thermal components in their fuel ion composition. © 2011 IAEA, Vienna.

For the first time, the neutron emission from JET plasmas heated with combined deuterium neutral beam injection and third harmonic ion cyclotron radio frequency heating have been studied with neutron emission spectroscopy (NES). Very high DD neutron rates were observed with only modest external heating powers, which was attributed to acceleration of deuterium beam ions to energies of about 2-3 MeV, where the DD reactivity is on a par of that of the DT reaction. Fast deuterium energy distributions were derived from analysis of NES data and confirm acceleration of deuterium beam ions up to energies around 3 MeV, in agreement with theoretical predictions. The high neutron rates allowed for observations of changes in the fast deuterium populations on a time scale of 50 ms. Correlations were seen between fast deuterium ions at different energies and magnetohydrodynamic activities, such as monster sawtooth crashes and toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes. © 2010 IAEA, Vienna.

The energy spectrum of the neutron emission from beam-target reactions in fusion plasmas at the Joint European Torus (JET) has been investigated. Different beam energies as well as injection angles were used. Both measurements and simulations of the energy spectrum were done. The measurements were made with the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR. Simulations of the neutron spectrum were based on first-principle calculations of neutral beam deposition profiles and the fast ion slowing down in the plasma using the code NUBEAM, which is a module of the TRANSP package. The shape of the neutron energy spectrum was seen to vary significantly depending on the energy of the beams as well as the injection angle and the deposition profile in the plasma. Cross validations of the measured and modeled neutron energy spectra were made, showing a good agreement for all investigated scenarios

Fusion power production is the ultimate goal of fusion research, and its determination is crucial in any fusion energy application. In this paper the principles of collimated neutron flux measurements for fusion plasma power determination are described. In this method, a highresolution neutron spectrometer provides an absolutely calibrated neutron flux, and a neutron profile monitor ("camera ") gives information on the neutron emission profile of the plasma. The total neutron flux seen by the spectrometer is discussed in terms of direct and scatteredflux, and a model is set up to evaluate the magnitude of these different components. Particular care is taken to estimate the uncertainties involved, both in the model and the measurements. The method is put to practical use at JET, where a magnetic proton recoil spectrometer and a neutron profile monitor are available. Results from JET's trace tritium experimental campaign in 2003 are presented and show that the systematic uncertainties infusion power measurements are reduced in comparison to what has been presented for foil activation systems. A systematic error of 6% is reported here. For ITER these results imply that the fusion power can be redundantly measured and with better accuracies than for traditional methods.

Neutrons are produced in fusion energy experiments with both deuterium (D) and deuterium–tritium (DT) plasmas. Neutron spectroscopy is a valuable tool in the study of the underlying fuel ion populations. The magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer, originally installed at JET in 1996 for 14-MeV neutron measurements, has been upgraded, with the main aim of improving its signal-to-background ratio (S/B), making measurements of the 2.5-MeV neutron emission in D plasmas possible. The upgrade includes a new focal-plane detector, based on the phoswich technique and consequently less sensitive to background, and a new custom-designed digital data acquisition system based on transient recorder cards. Results from JET show that the upgraded MPRu can measure 2.5-MeV neutrons with S/B=5, an improvement by a factor of 50 compared with the original MPR. S/B of 2.8×104 in future DT experiments is estimated. The performance of the MPRu is exemplified with results from recent D plasma operations at JET, concerning both measurements with Ohmic, ion cyclotron resonance (ICRH) and neutral beam injection (NBI) plasma heating, as well as measurements of tritium burn-up neutrons. The upgraded instrument allows for 2.5-MeV neutron emission and deuterium ion temperature measurements in plasmas with low levels of tritium, a feature necessary for the ITER experiment.

A method to generate modeled neutron spectra from bulk and fast ion distributions simulated by TRANSP has been developed. In this paper, modeled data generated from fuel ion distrubutions modeled with TRANSP is compared to measured data from two neutron spectrometers with different lines of sight; TOFOR with a radial one and the MPRu with a tangential one. The information obtained from the analysis of the measured neutron spectra such as the relative intensity of the emission from different ion populations places additional constraints on the simulation and can be used to adjust the parameters of the simulation., JET-EFDA contributors. 17th Topical Conference High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics, May 2008, Albaquerque, New Mexico, USA

The effect of ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) on ((3)He)D plasmas at JET was studied with the time of flight optimized rate (TOFOR) spectrometer dedicated to 2.5 MeV dd neutron measurements. In internal transport barrier (ITB) plasma experiments with large (3)He concentrations (X((3)He)>15%) an increase in neutron yield was observed after the ITB disappeared but with the auxiliary neutral beam injection and ICRH power still applied. The analysis of the TOFOR data revealed the formation of a high energy (fast) D population in this regime. The results were compared to other mode conversion experiments with similar X((3)He) but slightly different heating conditions. In this study we report on the high energy neutron tails originating from the fast D ions and their correlation with X((3)He) and discuss the light it can shed on ICRH-plasma power coupling mechanisms., QC 20101119

17th Topical Conference High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics, May 2008, Albaquerque, New Mexico, USA