INTERACTION OF PLASMA TURBULENCE – NEUTRALS ON THE EDGE OF TOKAMAK PLASMAS
This project intends to improve the predictive nature of numerical simulations of tokamak edge plasma and its interaction with the plasma-facing wall. This kind of simulation is essential for designing and preparing for the operation of thermonuclear experimental reactors like ITER.
The heat flows reaching the plasma-facing wall are managed by dissipation; this involves exploiting the interactions between the plasma and the neutral gas on the edge so as to distribute the power evenly across the machine’s wall.
Theoretical and experimental results already available seem to point to significant coupling between plasma turbulence and the interactions between this plasma and the neutral gas. Simulating such phenomena will require processing these mechanisms in a self-consistent manner using the numerical code that remains to be developed.