Effect of the fuel type on the pedestal and global performance in JET, ITER and future fusion power plants

ITER and future fusion power plants will use a mix of deuterium and tritium as fuel. However, the vast majority of experiments in fusion plasma physics employ either hydrogen or deuterium.

For the success of fusion energy, understanding and predicting the effect of the fuel type on the fusion performance has uttermost importance.In 2021-22, the European experiment JET has performed a unique experimental campaign in tritium and mixed deuterium/tritium plasmas.

Within this campaign, the applicant has coordinated an experiment designed with the specific aim of identifying the direct effect of the isotope on the pedestal region of the plasma.

The present project aims to exploit this one-of-a-kind dataset to:Describe the effect of the isotope on the pedestalIdentify the physics mechanisms that explain the effect of the isotope on the pedestalDevelop and test a pedestal predictive model that includes the effect of the isotope.Improve the performance predictions of ITER and future fusion power plant by updating the present integrated core-pedestal predictive models.The experimental datasets have been already collected by the applicants and the team have years of experience in pedestal modelling and data analysis.

The work will be developed by the applicant (for the experimental part, supervision and integrated modelling), one PhD student (H. Nyström, for the stability and the predictive modelling), and a new PhD student (for the transport).