Plasma steering to avoid disruptions in ITER and tokamak power plants

TL;DR

This paper discusses the complexities and risks of plasma steering in tokamaks like ITER, highlighting that controlling disruptions and runaway electrons is more challenging and risky than it appears, requiring comprehensive solutions for safe operation.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of plasma steering challenges in ITER, emphasizing the interconnected risks and the need for robust control strategies to ensure safe tokamak operation.

Findings

Disruptions and runaways are interconnected risks.

Plasma control loss resembles driving on icy roads.

Addressing one risk complicates others.

Abstract

Steering tokamak plasmas is commonly viewed as a way to avoid disruptions and runaway electrons. Plasma steering sounds as safe as driving to work but will be shown to more closely resemble driving at high speed through a dense fog on an icy road. The long time required to terminate an ITER discharge compared to time over which dangers can be foreseen is analogous to driving in a dense fog. The difficulty of regaining plasma control if it is lost resembles driving on an icy road. Disruptions and runaways are associated with three issues -- a solution to one tends to complicate the solution to the other two: loss of plasma position control, excessive heat deposition, and wall melting due to runaway electrons. All three risks must be addressed for ITER to achieve its mission and essentially eliminated before tokamak power plants can be deployed.