Design and operation of the pellet charge exchange diagnostic for measurement of energetic confined α particles and tritons on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Abstract

Radially resolved energy and density distributions of the confined α particles in D–T experiments on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) are being measured with the pellet charge exchange (PCX) diagnostic. Other energetic ion species can be detected as well, such as tritons produced in D–D plasmas and H, He3, or tritium rf-driven minority ion tails. The ablation cloud formed by injected low-Z impurity pellets provides the neutralization target for this active charge exchange technique. Because the cloud neutralization efficiency is uncertain, the PCX diagnostic is not absolutely calibrated so only relative density profiles are obtained. A mass and energy resolving E∥B neutral particle analyzer (NPA) is used which has eight energy channels covering the energy range of 0.3–3.7 MeV for α particles with energy resolution ranging from 5.8% to 11.3% and a spatial resolution of ∼5 cm. The PCX diagnostic views deeply trapped ions in a narrow pitch angle range around a mean value of v∥/v=−0.048±10−3. For D–T operation, the NPA was shielded by a polyethylene–lead enclosure providing 100× attenuation of ambient γ radiation and 14 MeV neutrons. The PCX diagnostic technique and its application on TFTR are described in detail.