Fast plasma dilution in ITER with pure Deuterium Shattered Pellet Injection

TL;DR

This study uses advanced simulations to demonstrate that pure Deuterium Shattered Pellet Injection in ITER can rapidly dilute plasma, potentially reducing runaway electron risks without triggering large MHD disturbances.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel simulation-based analysis showing effective plasma dilution in ITER using pure Deuterium Shattered Pellet Injection, highlighting its potential for safer plasma control.

Findings

Dilutes plasma by over a factor of 10 without large MHD activity

Reduces risk of hot tail Runaway Electron generation

Potential to prevent RE beams in ITER

Abstract

JOREK 3D non-linear MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) simulations of pure Deuterium Shattered Pellet Injection in ITER are presented. It is shown that such a scheme could allow diluting the plasma by more than a factor 10 without immediately triggering large MHD activity, provided the background impurity density is low enough. This appears as a promising strategy to reduce the risk of hot tail Runaway Electron (RE) generation and to avoid RE beams altogether in ITER, motivating further studies in this direction.