Energetic Particles In Magnetic Confinement Systems

摘要

Dominating α-particle heating will be the qualitatively new physics element of ITER. As it constitutes both a conceptually challenging as well as a practically highly relevant field, it has attracted the attention of a large and growing scientific community. Theoretical and diagnostic tools should be fully developed at the commencement of the thermonuclear operation of ITER. Fortunately effective methods exist to produce significant fractions of energetic ions already in present experiments. Although these populations differ qualitatively in their energy and pitch-angle spectra from those of fusion-alphas, they offer an excellent opportunity to test theoretical models and codes and to develop and benchmark diagnostic techniques. ITER itself will not mark the last stage in the development of fusion heating, and a comprehensive ab initio understanding of fast particle results on this device will be a necessary prerequisite for bridging the gap to DEMO. The study of the confinement properties of energetic particles, and in particular their interaction with the background plasma, is therefore a key element in the preparation for ITER and DEMO operation.