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Fusion Science and Technology
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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
M. Reinhart et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 201-204
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16905
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work we investigate the applicability of several optical emission spectroscopy methods to measure the electron density and temperature in deuterium plasma in the linear plasma generator PSI-2. The spectroscopy measurements are realized by an imaging spectrometer which delivers radial profiles of the emission lines. With the application of an inverse Abel transformation, spatially resolved measurements are obtained.The spectroscopy methods divide into two groups: The measurement of ne by Balmer line ratios and by the rotational temperature of molecules is only suitable for ionizing plasmas; the measurement of ne by the Stark broadening of Paschen lines and of Te by Paschen line ratios is only applicable for recombining plasmas.For the evaluation of these methods, different plasma conditions are produced in PSI-2. The plasma generator is capable of producing deuterium plasmas with electron densities of up to 1013 cm-3 and electron temperatures of up to 20 eV. Additional measurements with a Langmuir double probe are conducted for comparison with the spectroscopy measurements.A collisional-radiative model in the Yacora code is used to compare measured Balmer line emissions with the calculation and to investigate which reaction channels influence the recombination in PSI-2.
