TECXY simulations of the power exhaust in the multi-impurity plasma of DTT reactor

Abstract

Reduction of the heat load to plasma-facing components is a crucial problem for future fusion reactors like Divertor Test Tokamak (DTT). Mitigation of the power load via increased plasma radiation with the use of puffed ions of impurities would be one way to mitigate power in the scrape-off layer. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the impact of seeded impurities on the radiation pattern and the power load to the divertor plates of the high-field DTT reactor in the single null (SN) configuration. The simulations have been done with the use of the TECXY code, which solves multi-species plasma transport equations for multiple impurity species simultaneously and all associated ionization stages in a two-dimensional poloidal geometry. TECXY represents the model of plasma transport in the scrape-off layer region by a classical set of transport equations of multi-species plasma derived by Braginskii. The paper aims to compare the mitigation capabilities of neon and argon impurities seeded in the plasma of the DTT device and to obtain a significant energy flux reduction to the target plate at the smallest possible impurity concentration. Performed investigations showed the effects of neon and argon impurities seeding separately for constant electron density at the separatrix. It has been found that the decrease in electron temperature on the divertor plates up to 3 eV at the outer and the inner divertor plates and the peak power load below 15 MW m−2 at the outer divertor plate can be achieved with argon seeding and much lower impurity concentration than that in the case of neon impurity seeding. Studies have shown the complexity of the effect of neon and argon impurities on the boundary plasma. It was found that the reduction of temperature and the power on both divertor plates was the most effective for the high upstream plasma densities. The results show also that diffusive perpendicular transport strongly affects impurity radiation and thus plasma condition at divertor plates.