Assessment of plasma parameters for the low activation phase of ITER operation

Abstract

An assessment of ITER plasma parameters is carried out for the low activation phase that is required for commissioning the basic ITER systems including plasma control, heating and current drive. Such an operation is analysed for hydrogen, helium and deuterium plasmas for full field and current, as well as with magnetic field and plasma current reduced to half of their design values, B0 = 2.65 T, Ip = 7.5 MA. Both hydrogen and deuterium neutral beam injection (NBI) are considered. We assess the possible domain for safe operation, and the possible target plasmas for commissioning the NBI, electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and ion cyclotron heating (ICH) systems, taking into account the constraints imposed by NB shine-through loss, Greenwald limit and access to H-mode operation. Simulations with the Automated System for Transport Analysis (ASTRA) show that for 33 MW of NBI with 20 MW of ECH, H-mode access is marginal for hydrogen plasmas. Good H-mode confinement, expected at PNB + PEC + PIC > 1.5 PL–H, is more likely for the helium and deuterium cases. It is found that plasma parameters, such as normalized beta, plasma density and current flat-top duration, for full power/half field/half current operation can be similar to those required for the DT long pulse operation. Preliminary assessment is also made of the maximum of tritium and neutron yield achievable in a single shot at the deuterium phase of ITER operation.