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Effects of Micro-turbulence on the Removal of Helium Ash in Deuterium–Tritium Plasmas

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Abstract

Avoiding the accumulation of helium ash in the plasma core is a critical issue for future fusion reactors such as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor. The effects of micro-turbulence, including ion temperature gradient (ITG), parallel velocity shear (PVS) and collisionless trapped electron mode (CTEM) turbulence, on the removal of helium ash are briefly reviewed. We study how helium ash affects ITG and PVS instabilities based on our previous theoretical works, and compare the corresponding results with CTEM instability. The parametric dependence of ash flux is illustrated by calculating the turbulent flux and the corresponding transport coefficients. It indicates that long wavelength electrostatic micro-turbulence is favorable for removing helium ash, especially when its density profile is steeper than that of electrons. The outward flux of helium ash becomes larger for the temperature of helium ash being slightly higher than that of background plasmas (\({T}_{z}>{T}_{e}={T}_{i}\)). Isotopic effects are favorable (unfavorable) for exhausting helium ash through PVS and CTEM (ITG) turbulence. In addition, the ambipolarity of turbulent transport fluxes between electrons, ions and helium ash is self-consistently verified, and its implication on the simultaneous transport of both helium ash and D–T ions is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the many discussions during the 1st CFEC in Leshan, China. We also acknowledge Profs. Xiaogang Wang, Vincent Chan, P. H. Diamond and K. Ida for useful and interesting discussions. This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFE0302000, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.11905079 and 11675059, 51821005, and the Initiative Postdocs Supporting Program of China under Grant No. BX20180105 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, HUST: 2021XXJS007.

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  1. International Joint Research Laboratory of Magnetic Confinement Fusion and Plasma Physics, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Weixin Guo

  2. School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Mingzhu Zhang

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  1. Weixin Guo
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  2. Mingzhu Zhang
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Correspondence to Weixin Guo.

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Guo, W., Zhang, M. Effects of Micro-turbulence on the Removal of Helium Ash in Deuterium–Tritium Plasmas. J Fusion Energ 40, 8 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-021-00303-7

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