On the minimum transport required to passively suppress runaway electrons in SPARC disruptions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the minimum passive magnetic transport needed to suppress runaway electrons during disruptions in the SPARC tokamak, highlighting the importance of core transport and magnetic island effects.

Contribution

It quantifies the minimal RE transport required for suppression and emphasizes the role of core-localized electrons and magnetic island dynamics in this process.

Findings

A diffusion coefficient of ~18 m^2/s in the core can fully mitigate REs.

Finite transport within magnetic islands significantly reduces RE current.

Core electrons with energies 0.2-15 MeV are key to RE plateau formation.

Abstract

In [V.A. Izzo et al 2022 Nucl. Fusion 62 096029], state-of-the-art modeling of thermal and current quench (CQ) MHD coupled with a self-consistent evolution of runaway electron (RE) generation and transport showed that a non-axisymmetric (n = 1) in-vessel coil could passively prevent RE beam formation during disruptions in SPARC, a compact high-field tokamak projected to achieve a fusion gain Q > 2 in DT plasmas. However, such suppression requires finite transport of REs within magnetic islands and re-healed flux surfaces; conservatively assuming zero transport in these regions leads to an upper bound of RE current ~1 MA compared to ~8.7 MA of pre-disruption plasma current. Further investigation finds that core-localized electrons, within r/a < 0.3 and with kinetic energies 0.2-15 MeV, contribute most to the RE plateau formation. Yet only a relatively small amount of transport, i.e. a diffusion coefficient ~18 $\mathrm{m^2/s}$, is needed in the core to fully mitigate these REs. Properly accounting for (i) the CQ electric field's effect on RE transport in islands and (ii) the contribution of significant RE currents to disruption MHD may help achieve this.