Runaway electron generation in disruptions mitigated by deuterium and noble gas injection in SPARC

TL;DR

This study uses Bayesian optimization and numerical simulations to analyze how deuterium and noble gas injections can mitigate runaway electrons during disruptions in SPARC, highlighting optimal conditions and material combinations.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-objective Bayesian optimization approach to identify optimal injection parameters for runaway electron mitigation in SPARC disruptions.

Findings

Deuterium injection can prevent runaway generation during disruptions.

Combining deuterium with neon improves mitigation effectiveness.

Higher deuterium densities are needed for effective mitigation in D-T operations.

Abstract

One of the critical challenges in future high current tokamaks is the avoidance of runaway electrons during disruptions. Here, we investigate disruptions mitigated with combined deuterium and noble gas injection in SPARC. We use multi-objective Bayesian optimization of the densities of the injected material, taking into account limits on the maximum runaway current, the transported fraction of the heat loss, and the current quench time. The simulations are conducted using the numerical framework DREAM (Disruption Runaway Electron Analysis Model). We show that during deuterium operation, runaway generation can be avoided with material injection, even when we account for runaway electron generation from DD-induced Compton scattering. However, when including the latter, the region in the injected-material-density space corresponding to successful mitigation is reduced. During deuterium-tritium operation, acceptable levels of runaway current and transported heat losses are only obtainable at the highest levels of achievable injected deuterium densities. Furthermore, disruption mitigation is found to be more favourable when combining deuterium with neon, compared to deuterium combined with helium or argon.