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This paper discusses the behaviour and consequences of the expected populations of energetic ions in ITER plasmas. It begins with a careful analytic and numerical consideration of the stability of Alfvén Eigenmodes in the ITER 15 MA baseline scenario. The stability threshold is determined by balancing the energetic ion drive against the dominant damping mechanisms and it is found that only in the outer half of the plasma (r/a>0.5) can the fast ions overcome the thermal ion Landau damping. This is in spite of the reduced numbers of alpha-particles and beam ions in this region but means that any Alfvén Eigenmode-induced redistribution is not expected to influence the fusion burn process. The influence of energetic ions upon the main global MHD phenomena expected in ITER's primary operating scenarios, including sawteeth, neoclassical tearing modes and Resistive Wall Modes, is also reviewed. Fast ion losses due to the non-axisymmetric fields arising from the finite number of toroidal field coils, the inclusion of ferromagnetic inserts, the presence of test blanket modules containing ferromagnetic material, and the fields created by the Edge Localised Mode (ELM) control coils in ITER are discussed. The greatest losses and associated heat loads onto the plasma facing components arise due to the use of the ELM control coils and come from neutral beam ions that are ionised in the plasma edge.

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The slowing-down process of suprathermal alpha particles in a rippled toroidal field is investigated by means of an orbit-following Monte-Carlo code. It is found that numerical results on the collisionless ripple loss agree fairly well with the theoretical predictions. The collisional diffusion coefficient for non-ergodic banana particles in a field ripple is derived. The ripple-enhanced power loss of alpha particles during slowing-down amounts to 10% of their total power in a reactor-grade tokamak with a toroidal-field ripple of 𝛅 ∼ 1%. The fraction of particle loss is 1.5 to 1.8 times as large as that of power loss. The ripple-enhanced banana drift dominates the alpha-particle loss process.

Experiments have been carried out in JT-60U to verify the modelling of fast ion ripple transport. The ripple induced loss was estimated from the neutron decay following neutral beam pulse injection and the loss related heat load on the first wall. Comparison of the lost fraction and the hot spot positions between measurements and orbit following Monte Carlo calculations exhibited good agreement, indicating that the ripple transport governing fast ion losses is explained within the framework of existing theory. Neutral beam heating experiments in JT-60U also indicate that H modes free of ELMs are still obtainable for ripple amplitudes of up to 2.2%

The neoclassical bootstrap current effect is investigated in the JT-60 tokamak. The experimental resistive loop voltages are compared with the calculations, using the neoclassical resistivity, with and without the bootstrap current, and the Spitzer resistivity for a wide range of plasma current (Ip = 0.5-2 MA) and poloidal beta (βp = 0.1-3.2). The neoclassical bootstrap current is calculated directly with the force balance equations for viscous and friction forces according to the Hirshman–Sigmar theory. The bootstrap current driven by the fast ion component is also included. The calculated resistive loop voltage is consistent with the neoclassical prediction including the bootstrap current. It is shown that up to 80% of total plasma current is driven by the bootstrap current in the regime with an extremely high poloidal beta value (βp = 3.2) while the beam driven current is negligibly small.

Abstract. Within the ITPA Topical Group on Energetic Particles, we have investigated the impact that various mechanisms breaking the tokamak axisymmetry can have on the fusion alpha particle confinement in ITER as well as on the wall power loads due to these alphas. In addition to the well known TF ripple, the 3D effect due to ferromagnetic materials (in ferritic inserts, FI, and test blanket modules, TBM) and ELM mitigation coils are included in these mechanisms. ITER Scenario-4 was chosen since, due to its lower plasma current, it is more vulnerable for various off-normal features. First, the validity of using a 2D equilibrium was investigated: a 3D equilibrium was reconstructed using the VMEC code, and it was verified that no 3D equilibrium reconstruction is needed but it is sufficient to add the vacuum field perturbations onto an axisymmetric equilibrium. Then the alpha particle confinement was studied using three independent codes, ASCOT, DELTA5D, and F3D OFMC, all of which assume MHD quiescent background plasma and no anomalous diffusion. All the codes gave a loss power fraction of about 0.2% . The distribution of the peak power load was found to depend on the first wall shape. We also made the first attempt to accommodate the effect of fast ion related MHD on the wall loads in ITER using the HMGC and ASCOT codes. The power flux to the wall was found to increase due to the redistribution of fast ion by the MHD activity. Furthermore, the effect of the ELM mitigation field on the fast ion confinement was addressed by simulating NBI ions with the F3D OFMC code. The loss power fraction of NBI ions was found to increase from 0.3 % without the ELM mitigation field to 4-5% with the ELM mitigation field.

A previous experiment in JT-60U supported an orbit following Monte Carlo (OFMC) calculation regarding ripple trapped loss, and the present experiment, furthermore, suggests that the OFMC also predicts banana drift loss fairly well. In the experiment presented, the total fast ion losses due to toroidal field ripple were estimated from the decay in neutron emission following a short neutral beam injection (90 keV, D). The neutron decay for co-passing beam injection showed a diffusivity of about 0 m2/s, which indicates no fast ion loss. In contrast, the neutron decay for trapped particle injection exhibited characteristic enhancement of fast ion losses due to toroidal field ripple: the fast ion losses consisted of ripple trapped convection and ripple banana diffusion in the low collisionality regime. The OFMC calculation reconstructed completely the experimental neutron decay irrespective of the total ripple losses and the fraction of banana drift loss. Considering the previous work on ripple trapped loss and this result, it can be concluded that the OFMC code gives a good quantitative estimation of banana drift loss as well as ripple trapped loss