Alpha-particle confinement in Infinity Two Fusion Pilot Plant baseline plasma design

L. Carbajal*, J. Varela, A. Bader, W. Guttenfelder, A. Cerfon, J. C. Schmitt, J. Morrissey, C. C. Hegna, J. M. Canik, N. R. Mandell, M. Landreman, K. Willis, D. Huet, D. Clark, K. Camacho Mata, N. M. Davila, W. A. Cooper, W. D. Dorland, J. M. Duff, G. Le BarsA. Malkus, L. Singh, B. Medasani, P. Sinha, Konsta Särkimäki, Joona Sissonen, Antti Snicker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, we present a detailed assessment of fusion-born alpha-particle confinement, their wall loads, and stability of Alfvén eigenmodes driven by these energetic particles in the Infinity Two Fusion Pilot Plant Baseline Plasma Design, a 4-field-period quasi-isodynamic stellarator to operate in deuterium-tritium fusion conditions. Using the Monte-Carlo codes SIMPLE, ASCOT5, and KORC-T, we study the collisionless and collisional dynamics of guiding-center and full-orbit alpha-particles in the core plasma. We find that core energy losses to the wall are less than 4%. Our simulations shows that peak power loads on the wall of this configuration are around 2.5 MW/m2 and are spatially localized, toroidally, and poloidaly in the vicinity of x-points of the magnetic island chain n/m = 4/5 outside the plasma volume. Also, an exploratory analysis using various simplified walls shows that shaping and distance of the wall from the plasma volume can help reduce peak power loads. Our stability assessment of Alfvén eigenmodes using the STELLGAP and FAR3d codes shows the absence of unstable modes driven by alpha-particles in Infinity Two due to the relatively low alpha-particle beta at the envisioned 800 MW operating scenario.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Plasma Physics
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2025
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work was supported by Type One Energy. ASCOT5 development was partially funded by the Academy of Finland projects No. 353370, 324759, and 362342.

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