Assessment of the runaway electron load distribution in ITER during 3D MHD induced beam termination

Abstract

In ITER, disruption-born runaway electrons (REs), unless mitigated, are expected to form a several Mega-Ampere beam that ultimately intercepts the first wall leading to melting of the plasma facing components. Developing a successful mitigation strategy therefore requires modeling that takes into account the coupling between REs and the MHD during the formation and termination of the beam, along with estimates for the wall loads that can be compared to design values. Using the JOREK code, this work aims to provide the latter by presenting a novel model for collisions between REs and the wall and applying it to a beam termination scenario in ITER. To this end, the transport of REs is modeled by tracing particles in the fields calculated by preceding simulations of the disruption event where REs were treated in the fluid picture and self-consistently coupled to the MHD. The resulting heat loads are found to be highly localized in both the poloidal and toroidal directions, with 3D features also playing an important role in the appearance of hot spots. Peak loads were on the order of 107−108Jm2 . The load distribution was found to only be weakly sensitive to the initial phase space distribution of the REs when decoupled from the fields, while modifying properties of the underlying MHD yielded notable differences in wetted area and peak loads, in particular for cases with higher resistivity.