A new method to reduce the toroidal field ripple effect due to the ferromagnetic materials in updated CFETR

Abstract

The toroidal field ripple (TFR) is one of the critical factors affecting the long-pulse high-performance discharges for the tokamak device. The TFR is not only determined by the toroidal field coils (TFCs) but is also affected by the ferromagnetic materials in the plasma facing components such as diagnostic system and blanket system. In the phase Ⅱ design of the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), the inner ferromagnetic constituent and the poloidal segmentation of water-cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket are modified and the diagnostic system also has major change compared with the phase Ⅰ design, therefore it is necessary to investigate and reduce the TFR effect of the updated blanket system and diagnostic system for the phase Ⅱ designed CFETR. Firstly, the effect of the blanket system on the TFR is evaluated systematically, considering the diagnostic shielding modules (DSMs) of the diagnostic system at the equatorial ports (EPs). Moreover, a new TFR reducing method by adjusting the distribution of ferromagnetic materials filling ratios in the toroidal direction is proposed. According to the results, the local TFR nearby the plasma separatrix line already exceeds the design specification limit with the blanket system, and this phenomenon will be worse due to installing the DSMs and the EP. After adjusting the percentage of the ferromagnetic materials in the outboard-side (OBs) segment, the plasma TFR is reduced obviously and within the 0.5% limit.