Generation of Runaway Electrons and Their Impact to Plasma Facing Components

摘要

Runaway electrons accompanied by inductive or noninductive plasma currents in a tokamak have severe interactions with plasma facing materials of a first wall, and influence the first wall structure due to activation and damage. Modeling of runaway electron generation near the wall in a tokamak is carried out. This includes the evaluation of acceleration along magnetic surfaces for relativistic electrons with energies larger than the runaway threshold. Penetration of runaway electrons of energy ranges from a few MeV to several ten MeV leads to gamma ray photon production by bremsstrahlung. One of the specific features of the impact on the first wall technology is that they give rise to activation due to giant resonance of the (gamma, n) nuclear reaction and, as a consequence, cause a requirement of remote maintenance. The other is that they bring energy deposition at brazing areas between low Z material and metal, or at a metal itself, and they result in melting, cracking and grain growth. The methods to estimate these effects using nuclear data and material data on the basis of runaway flux modeling are introduced and examples of estimation are given.