Ignition Analysis for D Plasma with Non-Maxwellian ³He Minority in Fusion Reactors

Abstract

Possible fusion reactivity enhancement due to ³He minority ICRF heating in D-³He toroidal plasma is demonstrated in present numerical simulations. On this purpose the particle code based on test-particle approach is developed. This code solves guiding center equations for ³He ions in toroidal magnetic field including Coulomb collisions of these ions with the background deuterons and electrons. A simple Monte Carlo model for ICRF heating is implemented in this code as well. The transformation of ³He distribution function from Maxwellian to non-Maxwellian due to heating plays the key role for reactivity enhancement. The formation of significant energetic tail gives rise to the reactivity enhancement. This is an important issue for the performance of fusion reactors with minority heating of ICRF.