Search

First principle calculations of the gamma-ray energy spectrum arising from thermonuclear reactions without intrinsic broadening in fusion plasmas are presented, extending the theoretical framework needed to interpret measurements up to the accuracy level enabled by modern high resolution instruments. An analytical formula for the spectrum from Maxwellian plasmas, which extends to higher temperatures than the results previously available in the literature, has been derived and used to discuss the assumptions and limitations of earlier models. In case of radio-frequency injection, numerical results based on a Monte Carlo method are provided, focusing in particular on improved relations between the peak shift and width from the d(p, gamma)He-3 reaction and the temperature of protons accelerated by radio-frequency heating. The results presented in this paper significantly improve the accuracy of diagnostic information that can be extracted from the gamma-ray emission spectrum of fusion reactions without intrinsic broadening and are of relevance for applications to high performance plasmas of present and next generation devices.

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 development of a stellarator-mirror fission-fusion hybrid concept is reviewed. The hybrid comprises of a fusion neutron source and a powerful sub-critical fast fission reactor core. The aim is the transmutation of spent nuclear fuel and safe fission energy production. In its fusion part, neutrons are generated in deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma, confined magnetically in a stellarator-type system with an embedded magnetic mirror. Based on kinetic calculations, the energy balance for such a system is analyzed. Neutron calculations have been performed with the MCNPX code, and the principal design of the reactor part is developed. Neutron outflux at different outer parts of the reactor is calculated. Numerical simulations have been performed on the structure of a magnetic field in a model of the stellarator-mirror device, and that is achieved by switching off one or two coils of toroidal field in the Uragan-2M torsatron. The calculations predict the existence of closed magnetic surfaces under certain conditions. The confinement of fast particles in such a magnetic trap is analyzed.

The new neutron spectrometer time-of-flight enhanced diagnostics (TOFED) for the EAST tokamak is presented and its characteristics are described in terms of simulation results, as well as the interface in the torus hall along with new neutral beam (NB) injectors. The use of TOFED for studies of the slowing down of NB-injected deuterons is illustrated. The implications of measuring the neutron emission on a long pulse machine are discussed together with the experimental challenges and diagnostic possibilities approaching those to be encountered in continuous operation.

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.

The effects of nuclear elastic scattering (knock-on) from energetic light ions on the neutron emission spectrum in fusion plasmas are studied. The knock-on spectral features in D and DT plasmas without and with radio frequency heating on a 3 He minority component are determined through Monte Carlo simulations. The neutron production magnitudes are determined relative to those due to fuel ions in the thermal bulk state (down to the level of 10 −5 ), and the interference of higher order terms in the outlying spectral regions where these dominate is evaluated. The study completes the mapping of nuclear reaction and elastic scattering effects on the neutron emission spectrum including first-, second- and third-order processes. Included are the cross-couplings between dd and dt fusion reactions as manifested in the full neutron spectrum ( E n = 0–20 MeV) for DT plasmas of varying isotopic composition. This study determines the relationship between components of the neutron emission spectra and those of the underlying ion velocity distributions, which provides a general basis for judging the plasma diagnostic information that can potentially be extracted from measurement and analysis of such neutron data.

The straight field line mirror (SFLM) hybrid reactor studies aim to identify a concept where the safety of fission power production could be enhanced. A fusion neutron source could become a mean to achieve this. The SFLM studies address critical issues such as reactor safety, natural circulation of coolants, steady state operation for a year or more and means to avoid too strong material loads by a proper geometrical arrangement of the reactor components. A key result is that power production may be possible with a fusion Q factor as low as 0.15. This possibility arises from the high power amplification by fission, which within reactor safety margins may exceed a factor of 100. The requirements on electron temperature are dramatically lower for a fusion hybrid compared to a stand-alone fusion reactor. This and several other factors are important for our choice to select a mirror machine for the fusion hybrid reactor studies.

Recently, in a research project at Uppsala University a simplified neutronic model for a straight field line mirror hybrid has been devised and its most important operation parameters have been calculated under the constraints of a fission power production of 3 GW and that the effective multiplication factor k(eff) does not exceed 0.95. The model can be considered as representative for hybrids driven by other types of mirrors too. In order to reduce the demand on the fusion power of the mirror, a modified option of the hybrid has been considered that generates a reduced fission power of 1.5 GW with an increased maximal value k(eff) = 0.97. The present paper deals with nuclear safety aspects of this type of hybrids. It presents and discusses calculation results of reactivity effects as well as of driver effects.

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, Q(r) = P-fis/P-fus >> 1. The upper bound on Q(r) is primarily determined by geometry and reactor safety. For the SFLM, the upper bound is Q(r)approximate to 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 approximate to 10 keV for a fusion reactor. Power production in the SFLM seems possible with Q approximate to 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 es

Fusion-fission (FuFi) hybrids will need instrumentation to diagnose the deuterium-tritium plasma, whose 14-MeV neutron emission is the driver of the sub-critical fission core. While the fission neutron yield rate (Y-fi and hence power P-fi) can be monitored with standard instrumentation, fusion plasmas in hybrids require special diagnostics where the determination of Y-th (proportional to P-fu) is a challenge. Information on Y-fu is essential for assessing the fusion plasma performance which together with Y-fi allows for the validation of the neutron multiplication factor (k) of the subcritical fission core. Diagnostics for hybrid plasmas are heuristically discussed with special reference to straight field line mirror (SFLM). Relevant DT plasma experience from JET and plans for ITER in the main line of fusion research were used as input. It is shown that essential SFLM plasma information can potentially be obtained with proposed instrumentation, but the state of the hybrid plasma must be predictably robust as derived from fully diagnosed dedicated experiments without interface restrictions of the hybrid application.

The neutron emission from (He-3)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 He-3 ions is described and the knock-on components were determined with the help of newly derived He-3 + 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.

A parametric relationship between total neutron yield rate and collimated fluxes related to the brightness (B) of plasma chords (lambda) is developed for different emissivity distributions of tokamak plasmas. Specifically, the brightness was expressed as a function of chord coordinates of radial position using a simple model for the emissivity profiles of width parameter w. The functional brightness dependence B(lambda,w) was calculated to examine the relationship between measured flux and deduced yield rate, and its plasma profile dependence. The results were used to determine the chord range of minimum profile sensitivity in order to identify the preferred collimator sight for the determination of yield rate from neutron emission spectroscopy (YNES) measurements. The YNES method is discussed in comparison to conventional methods to determine the total neutron yield rates and related plasma fusion power relying on uncollimated flux measurements and a different calibration base for the flux-yield relationship. The results have a special bearing for tokamaks operating with both deuterium and deuterium-tritium plasmas and future high power machines such as for ITER, DEMO, and IGNITOR.

The cross section for d+He-3 elastic scattering has been determined for the angular range 20-180 degrees (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 (He-3)D plasmas subjected to RF heating and their manifestations in the spectrum of the d + d fusion neutron emission are discussed.

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 high-resolution 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 scattered flux, 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 in fusion 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.

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.

The present contribution discusses two neutron spectrometers: the time-of-flight spectrometer (TOFOR) and the magnetic proton recoil spectrometer (MPRu). TOFOR uses fast plastic scintillators equipped with digital time-stamping electronics to register the time of each eligible scintillation event. The time trace for each detector is acquired practically dead-time free. The detectors of the MPRu are of phoswich type and each detector is connected to a digital transient recorder card that stores the full waveform for an event. By using phoswich detectors, pulse-shape discrimination techniques can be applied offline to distinguish signal events from background. A future upgrade of TOFOR could be digital “hybrid” cards, which store correlated time and waveform information. This information can be used to decrease the background level in the ttof spectrum, thereby increasing the operating range.

The cross section of the d + He-3 -> alpha + p fusion reaction has been determined with regard to its systematic variation with energy (E-CM) based on the available experimental data. Information is provided on the angular distribution d sigma/d Omega (theta(p), E) at energies up to E-CM = 8.0 MeV and the total cross section sigma(E-CM) for the range E-CM = 3.0-8.0 MeV. The relevance of the presented results for fusion plasmas heated with RF heating of He-3 minority in D and DT plasmas is discussed.

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.

Radio frequency heating of majority ions is of prime importance for understanding the basic role of auxiliary heating in the activated D-T phase of ITER. Majority deuterium ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) experiments at the fundamental cyclotron frequency were performed in JET. In spite of the poor antenna coupling at 25 MHz, this heating scheme proved promising when adopted in combination with D neutral beam injection (NBI). The effect of fundamental ICRH of a D population was clearly demonstrated in these experiments: by adding similar to 25% of heating power the fusion power was increased up to 30-50%, depending on the type of NBI adopted. At this power level, the ion and electron temperatures increased from T-i similar to 4.0 keV and T-e similar to 4.5 keV (NBI-only phase) to T-i similar to 5.5 keV and T-e similar to 5.2 keV (ICRH + NBI phase), respectively. The increase in the neutron yield was stronger when 80 keV rather than 130 keV deuterons were injected in the plasma. It is shown that the neutron rate, the diamagnetic energy and the electron as well as the ion temperature scale roughly linearly with the applied RF power. A synergistic effect of the combined use of ICRF and NBI heating was observed: (i) the number of neutron counts measured by the neutron camera during the combined ICRF + NBI phases of the discharges exceeded the sum of the individual counts of the NBI-only and ICRF-only phases; (ii) a substantial increase in the number of slowing-down beam ions was detected by the time of flight neutron spectrometer when ICRF power was switched on; (iii) a small D subpopulation with energies slightly above the NBI launch energy was detected by the neutral particle analyzer and gamma-ray spectroscopy.

Recent JET experiments have been devoted to the study of (He-3)-D plasmas involving radio frequency (RF) heating. This paper starts by discussing the RF heating efficiency theoretically expected in such plasmas, covering both relevant aspects of wave and of particle dynamics. Then it gives a concise summary of the main conclusions drawn from recent experiments that were either focusing on studying RF heating physics aspects or that were adopting RF heating as a tool to study plasma behavior. Depending on the minority concentration chosen, different physical phenomena are observed. At very low concentration (X[He-3] < 1%), energetic tails are formed which trigger MHD activity and result in loss of fast particles. Alfven cascades were observed and gamma ray tomography indirectly shows the impact of sawtooth crashes on the fast particle orbits. Low concentration (X[He-3] < 10%) favors minority heating while for X[He-3] >> 10% electron mode conversion damping becomes dominant. Evidence for the Fuchs et al standing wave effect (Fuchs et al 1995 Phys. Plasmas 2 1637-47) on the absorption is presented. RF induced deuterium tails were observed in mode conversion experiments with large X[He-3] (approximate to 18%). As tentative modeling shows, the formation of these tails can be explained as a consequence of wave power absorption by neutral beam particles that efficiently interact with the waves well away from the cold D cyclotron resonance position as a result of their substantial Doppler shift. As both ion and electron RF power deposition profiles in (He-3)-D plasmas are fairly narrow-giving rise to localized heat sources-the RF heating method is an ideal tool for performing transport studies. Various of the experiments discussed here were done in plasmas with internal transport barriers (ITBs). ITBs are identified as regions with locally reduced diffusivity, where poloidal spinning up of the plasma is observed. The present know-how on the role of RF heating fo

The 14 MeV neutron emission from JET deuterium discharges is analysed on the basis of the information on all neutron diagnostics available on JET. This emission is due to the d + t → α + n reaction, mainly, the triton burn-up process, and is used to determine the fast triton confinement. A simplified model for triton burn-up neutron emission has been used and provides an adequate description of the 14 MeV emission. First orbit triton losses are found to amount to 50%, 20% and 10% at Ip = 1 MA, 2 MA and 3 MA, respectively. Neutron emission spectroscopy measurements with the magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer have detected a contribution to the 14 MeV emission due to residual tritium. For the selected (low impurity) discharges analysed in this paper 15% of the 14 MeV emission comes from the residual tritium reactions. It is also found that the residual tritium concentration tends to increase with increasing impurity content.

Fusion product diagnostics can be used to determine a fusion reaction rate, which indicates how close the plasma is to the ultimate goal of making a power plant based on nuclear fusion. However, these diagnostics can also provide large amounts of additional information, such as ion temperatures, the thermonuclear fraction in the fusion reaction rate, degree of fast ion confinement, fast ion loss mechanism, etc. Measurement systems for fusion product diagnostics are usually designed and optimized to a specific performance so that they play different roles in the experiment. The neutron emission rate, which is directly related to the fusion output, can be determined by (a) time-resolved emission monitors, which are well calibrated on-site, in combination with (b) activation systems and (c) profile monitors with accuracy up to several percent. The time-resolved neutron profiles also provide useful information for transport analysis. Velocity distributions and confinement properties of fast ions can be obtained from (d) the neutron spectrometers and (e) gamma-ray measurement. The interaction between plasma dynamics and fast ions can be studied with most fusion product diagnostic systems, especially with (f) escaping charged fusion product detectors. Each section of this chapter contains a general explanation of these systems, showing some experimental results obtained on present devices. A lot of interesting and useful information on the behavior of energetic particles and their degree of confinement are provided by them because interaction between thermal and nonthermal energetic ions and that among nonthermal ions contribute dominantly to the fusion reaction rate in present deuterium-deuterium experiments. In future deuterium-tritium fusion experiments on ITER, the contribution of thermonuclear fraction will be increased, and the combination of several neutron measurement systems will provide the absolute fusion output and neutron fluence on the first wall. Together w

The line integrated line emission measured by neutron spectrometers at JET along sight lines in the vertical and horizontal planes has been simulated in Monte Carlo calculations to determine the relationship between the measured (effective) ion temperature (T-eff) relative to the peak value of the profile (T-0). The general sight line dependence of (T-eff) was expressed analytically for circular plasmas which was used to explain the simulated results for the actual JET sight lines. The analytical model with parametrization of sight lines and plasma profiles is described and the results are used to discuss dual sight line measurements that can be tested at JET and its forward implications for study burning (nearly thermal) plasmas of ITER., Conference Information: 17th Topical Conference on High-Temperature Plasma Diagnostics Albuquerque, NM, 2008

Studies establishing key phenomena and developing diagnostics for energetic particle physics, which are essential for the next step burning plasma experiments such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), have been performed at the Joint European Torus (JET). Experiments have demonstrated clear self-heating of deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma by alpha particles as a maximum in electron temperature at an optimum mixture of 60 +/- 20% tritium. The change in electron temperature produced by alpha heating, Delta T-e(0) = 1.3 +/- 0.23 keV, was as expected from classical heating, whereas the heating of thermal ions was higher than expected from reference deuterium discharges. Alfven eigenmodes were stable in the highest fusion performance D-T plasmas, in agreement with the modeling. Systematic studies on the existence and properties of Alfven eigenmodes with external antenna driving and detecting Alfven eigenmodes are presented. The formation of fuel ion tails due to alpha-particle knock-on effects is described as derived from neutral particle analyzer and neutron emission spectrometry in D-T experiments. The gamma-ray diagnostics are shown to measure Profiles and energy distribution functions of high-energy ions and alpha particles. Time- and space-resolved gamma-ray images demonstrated for the first time the possibility of measuring several types of energetic ions simultaneously. The novel technique of detecting unstable Alfven eigenmodes with interferometry is found to be superior in detecting core-localized Alfven eigenmodes.

A time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer for measurement of the 2.5-MeV neutron emission from fusion plasmas has been developed and put into use at the JET tokamak. It has been optimized for operation at high rates (TOFOR) for the purpose of performing advanced neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnosis of deuterium plasmas with a focus on the fuel ion motional states for different auxiliary heating scenarios. This requires operation over a large dynamic range, including high rates of > 100 kHz with a maximum value of 0.5 MHz for the TOFOR design. This paper describes the design principles and their technical realization. The performance is illustrated with recent neutron TOF spectra recorded for plasmas subjected to different heating scenarios. A true event count rate of 39 kHz has been achieved at about a tenth of the expected neutron yield limit of JET, giving a projected maximum of 400 kHz at peak JET plasma yield. This means that the count rate capability for NES diagnosis of D plasmas has been improved more than an order of magnitude. Another important performance factor is the spectrometer bandwidth, where data have been acquired and analyzed successfully with a response function for neutrons over the energy range 1 to > 5 MeV. The implications of instrumental advancement represented by TOFOR are discussed., Conference Information: 21st IAEA Fusion Energy Conference Chengdu, PEOPLES R CHINA, OCT 16-21, 2006

A central task for fusion plasma diagnostics is to measure the 2.5 and 14 MeV neutron emission rate in order to determine the fusion power. A new method for determining the neutron yield has been developed at JET. It makes use of the magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer and a neutron camera and provides the neutron yield with small systematic errors. At ITER a similar system could operate if a high-resolution, high-performance neutron spectrometer similar to the MPR was installed. In this paper, we present how such system could be implemented and how well it would perform under different assumption of plasma scenarios and diagnostic capabilities. It is found that the systematic uncertainty for using such a system as an absolute calibration reference is as low as 3 % and hence it would be an excellent candidate for the calibration of neutron monitors such as fission chambers. It is also shown that the system could provide a 1 ms time resolved estimation of the neutron rate with a total uncertainty of 5 %.

We review the current status of the European fusion materials modelling programme. We describe recent findings and outline potential areas for future development. Large-scale density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the structure of the point defects in alpha-Fe, and highlight the crucial part played by magnetism. The calculations give accurate migration energies of point defects and the strength of their interaction with He atoms. Kinetic models based on DFT results reproduce the stages of radiation damage recovery in iron, and stages of He-desorption from pre-implanted iron. Experiments aimed at validating the models will be carried out in the future using a multi-beam ion irradiation facility chosen for its versatility and rapid feedback.

and JET EFDA contributors

A time-of-flight neutron spectrometer (TOFOR) has been developed to measure the 2.45 MeV d+d3He+n neutron emission from D plasmas. The TOFOR design features the capability to operate at high rates in the 100 kHz range, data collection with fast time digitizing and storing, and monitoring of the signals from the scintillation detectors used. This article describes the principles of the instrument and its installation at JET and presents preliminary data to illustrate the TOFOR performance as a neutron emission spectroscopy diagnostic.

The measurement of fast ion populations is one of the diagnostic capabilities provided by neutron emission spectroscopy (NES). NES measurements were carried out during JET trace tritium campaign with the magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer. A favorable plasma scenario is (T)D where the resulting 14 MeV neutron yield is dominated by suprathermal emission from energetic tritons accelerated by radio frequency at their fundamental cyclotron frequency. Information on the triton distribution function has been derived from NES data with a simple model based on two components referred to as bulk (B) and high energy (HE). The HE component is based on strongly anisotropic tritium distribution that can be used for routine best-fit analysis to provide tail temperature values (THE). This article addresses to what extent the THE values are model dependent by comparing the model above with a two-temperature (bi-) Maxwellian model featuring parallel and perpendicular temperatures. The bi-Maxwellian model is strongly anisotropic and frequently used for radio frequency theory.

and JET EFDA contributors EFD-C(06)01/11

The diagnostics functions of neutron measurements as well as the roles played by neutron yield monitors, cameras and spectrometers are reviewed. The importance of recent developments in neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnostics is emphasized. Results are presented from the NES diagnosis of the Joint European Torus (JET) plasmas performed with the magnetic proton recoil (MPR) spectrometer during the first deuterium tritium experiment of 1997 and the recent trace tritium experiment of 2003. The NES diagnostic capabilities at JET are presently being enhanced by an upgrade of the MPR (MPRu) and a new 2.5 MeV time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer (TOFOR). The principles of MPRu and TOFOR are described and illustrated with the diagnostic role they will play in the high performance fusion experiments in the forward programme of JET largely aimed at supporting the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The importance of the JET NES effort for ITER is discussed.

The DT experimental campaign on JET (1997) represents a major step forward for neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnostic through the high quality data collected by the Magnetic Proton Recoil (MPR) spectrometer. These data for different DT plasma heating scenarios were analyzed here to determine the underlying fuel ion populations which in turn were used to project the 2.5-MeV neutron emission spectra for deuterium plasmas. The results on neutron spectra for DT and D plasmas in the same conditions were compared in order to determine the plasma information that could be expected from NES diagnosis of D plasmas and the instrumental characteristics that would be required. Future NES experiments would make dual sight line observations possible and the added diagnostic value is also assessed based on the present results.

The neutron emission from fast tritons in plasmas with different magnetic shear configurations has been investigated in a dedicated experiment on JET. Short pulses of neutral beam injection were used to deposit fast tritons in deuterium plasmas. By comparing the measured neutron yield with predictions based on DT reaction calculations, fast triton losses can be assessed. The latter are expected to be very low according to neoclassical predictions based on Fokker-Planck simulation [1]. Much larger “anomalous” beam-ion losses (up to 40%) have been reported in TFTR experiments for plasma conditions with reversed magnetic shear [2]. The TFTR experiments indicated an excess DT rate in the simulation and, to a lesser extent, in the DD rate and plasma stored energy. This was interpreted as anomalous beam-ion loss associated with reverse shear due to an unidentified loss mechanism. Evidence of a similar effect was searched for in the JET experiments reported in this paper.

(submitted to Nucl. Fusion).