Study of runaway electrons during EAST plasma start-up

Herein, the generation and loss of runaway electrons (REs) during the plasma start-up phase are observed in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). A dataset of nearly 400 ohmic discharges is established, and statistical analysis is employed to investigate the relationship between RE generation and key plasma parameters. It is observed that generation of REs is considerably suppressed under conditions of high plasma density and low loop voltage. REs are detected to be considerably in number when the ratio of the loop electric field to critical electric field, E loop / E c exceed 10 during the start-up phase. In addition, analysis of the correlation between plasma streaming parameters and E loop / E c reveals that a substantial population of REs is generated when electron temperature exceeds 700 eV. Moreover, a sudden drop in plasma current is observed to be consistent with the loss of REs, which is primarily due to macroscopic magnetohydrodynamics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Fusion Engineering and Design
Published
2025-06-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115232
Primary Topic
Magnetic confinement fusion research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Study of runaway electrons during EAST plasma start-up

Tianfu Zhou, Tian Tang, Chaogang Lou, Xiang Gao et al.
Fusion Engineering and Design
Magnetic confinement fusion research
article

Study of runaway electrons during EAST plasma start-up

Tianfu Zhou, Tian Tang, Chaogang Lou, Xiang Gao, Ang Ti, Jing Qian, Dalong Chen, Hailin Zhao, Yang Hong, Li Zeng, Wenjie Xia, S. Y. Lin, Haiqing Liu
article en

Abstract

Herein, the generation and loss of runaway electrons (REs) during the plasma start-up phase are observed in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). A dataset of nearly 400 ohmic discharges is established, and statistical analysis is employed to investigate the relationship between RE generation and key plasma parameters. It is observed that generation of REs is considerably suppressed under conditions of high plasma density and low loop voltage. REs are detected to be considerably in number when the ratio of the loop electric field to critical electric field, E loop / E c exceed 10 during the start-up phase. In addition, analysis of the correlation between plasma streaming parameters and E loop / E c reveals that a substantial population of REs is generated when electron temperature exceeds 700 eV. Moreover, a sudden drop in plasma current is observed to be consistent with the loss of REs, which is primarily due to macroscopic magnetohydrodynamics.

Fusion Engineering and DesignVol. 219
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Anhui University (CN), Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (CN), Institute of Plasma Physics (CN), Tsinghua University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 94%
Magnetic confinement fusion research
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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