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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
A. V. Anikeev et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 92-95
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A614
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In the gas dynamic trap experiment with 17 keV and 4.5 MW deuterium neutral beam injection the spatial profile of fast ion density has been studied by different methods: MSE spectroscopy, active charge-exchange diagnostic and measurement of DD fusion product fluxes. The characteristic radius of fast ion density profile was found to be about 7 cm at 1/e level mapped onto the GDT midplane, that is close to gyroradius of 10 keV deuteron and less than the estimated region occupied by the captured ions(~15 cm). The analysis of energy balance shows that discrepancy between measured and simulated values (~1.5 times) cannot be explained by enhanced fast ions loses. Simplified theory of fast ion density spatial profiles formation shows that energetically profitable configuration has narrow radial profile. Physical mechanisms of density profile formation are also described.