-collapse-induced vertical displacement event in high tokamak disruption

Abstract

Extremely fast vertical displacement events (VDEs) induced by a strong collapse were found in a vertically elongated , high tokamak with a resistive shell through computer simulations using the tokamak simulation code. Although the plasma current quench which has been shown to be the prime cause of VDEs in a relatively low tokamak (Nakamura Y et al 1996 Nucl. Fusion 36 643), was not observed during the VDE evolution, the observed growth rate of VDEs was almost five times faster than the growth rate of the usual positional instability . The essential mechanism of the -collapse-induced VDE was clarified to be the intense enhancement of positional instability due to a large and sudden degradation of the magnetic field decay n-index in addition to the significant destabilization due to a reduction in the stability index . The radial shift of the magnetic axis caused by the collapse induces eddy currents on the resistive shell, and these eddy currents produce a large degradation of the n-index. It is pointed out that the shell geometry characterizes the VDE dynamics, and that the VDE rate depends strongly both on the magnitude of the collapse and the n-index of the equilibria just before the collapse occurs. The JT-60U vacuum vessel is shown to possess the capability of preventing -collapse-induced VDEs.