Neutron Yields Based on Transport Calculation in EAST ICRF Minority Heating Plasmas

Abstract

Neutron diagnostics, including flux and energy spectrum measurements, have been applied on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST). The absolute calibration of neutron yields has been achieved by a calculation method using the Monte Carlo automatic modeling (MCAM) system and the Monte Carlo N-Particles (MCNP) code. Since the neutron yield is closely related with the ion density and temperature, it is a good measure of plasma performance, especially the wave heating effect. In ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) experiments, the increase in the ion temperature derived by the neutron yield indicates an effective plasma heating. Minority protons damp a large fraction of the total wave power, and then transfer part of the energy to deuterium by collisions. Neutron spectrum measurements also indicate that no tail is created by high energy deuterons during ICRF heating. However, the ion temperature derived by the neutron yield is consistent with the result by using a poloidal X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (PXCS), showing a reliable transport calculation.