Time resolved measurements of triton burnup in JET plasmas

Abstract

Triton production from one branch of the deuteron-deuteron fusion reaction is routinely measured at 6 ms time intervals in JET plasma discharges by recording the 2.5 MeV neutrons produced in the other branch using a set of calibrated fission chambers. The burnup of the tritons is measured by detecting the 14 MeV t-d neutrons with a 0.2 cm3 Si(Li) diode. The 2.5 MeV neutron flux can be used in a simple time dependent calculation based on classical slowing-down theory to predict the 14 MeV neutron flux. The measured flux and the triton slowing-down time are systematically lower than the values estimated from the key plasma parameters but the differences are within the experimental errors.