Confinement of Alpha Particles in a Low-Aspect-Ratio Tokamak Reactor

Abstract

Studies on the loss of fusion produced alpha particles enhanced by toroidal field (TF) ripple in a low-aspect-ratio tokamak reactor (VECTOR) have been made by using an orbit-following Monte-Carlo code. The ripple loss is strongly reduced as the aspect ratio becomes low. Consequently, alpha particles are well confined in VECTOR. In a low-aspect-ratio system, the dependence of the ripple loss on the number of TF coils is very weak, if the edge field ripple is kept constant. Thanks to the good confinement of alphas in a low-aspect-ratio system, the number of TF coils can be reduced to about 6, one half of the original VECTOR, by installing cooling systems near the outer edge of plasma and making allowances for about 30% increase in the bore diameter of TF coils.