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AlfvĂ©n eigenmode (AE) instabilities driven by alpha-particles have been observed in D-3He fusion experiments on the Joint European Torus (JET) with the ITER-like wall. For the efficient generation of fusion alpha-particles from D-3He fusion reaction, the three-ion radio frequency scenario was used to accelerate the neutral beam injection 100 keV deuterons to higher energies in the core of mixed D-3He plasmas at high concentrations of 3He. A large variety of fast-ion driven magnetohydrodynamic modes were observed, including the elliptical AlfvĂ©n eigenmodes (EAEs) with mode numbers n = âˆ'1 and axisymmetric modes with n = 0 in the frequency range of EAEs. The simultaneous observation of these modes indicates the presence of rather strong alpha-particle population in the plasma with a ‘bump-on-tail’ shaped velocity distribution. Linear stability analysis and Fokkerâ€"Planck calculations support the observations. Experimental evidence of the AEs excitation by fusion-born alpha-particles in the D-3He plasma is provided by neutron and gamma-ray diagnostics as well as fast-ion loss measurements. We discuss an experimental proposal for the planned full-scale D-T plasma experiments on JET based on the physics insights gained from these experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen majority plasmas will be used in the initial non-activated phase of ITER operation. Optimizing ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) in such scenarios will help in achieving H-mode in these plasmas. Past JET experiments with the carbon wall revealed a significant impact of intrinsic impurities on the ICRH performance in (³He)-H plasmas relevant for the full-field initial ITER phase. High plasma contamination with carbon impurities resulted in the appearance of a supplementary mode conversion layer and significant reduction in the transition concentration of ³He minority ions, defined as the concentration at which the change from minority heating to the mode conversion regime occurs. In view of the installation of the new ITER-like wall at JET, it is important to evaluate the effect of Be and W impurities on ICRH scenarios in (³He)-H plasmas. In this paper, an approximate analytical expression for the transition concentration of ³He minority ions is derived as a function of plasma and ICRH parameters, and accounting for typical impurity species at JET. The accompanying 1D wave modelling supports the analytical results and suggests a potential experimental method to reduce the ³He level needed to achieve a specific heating regime by puffing a small amount of 4He ions additionally to (³He)-H plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) scenarios relevant for the D–T phase of the JET tokamak are studied. Recent ICRH experiments in JET (3He)–D and (3He)–H plasmas confirmed the possibility of electron heating enhancement in the mode conversion (MC) regime due to the constructive interference of the reflected fast waves. Such a heating enhancement in D–T plasma is investigated first for JET-like conditions for both dipole and +π/2 ICRH antenna phasing, and for T concentration varied from 0% to 100%. It is shown that most of the MC scenarios at comparable concentrations of D and T species suffer from a parasitic absorption by fusion-born alpha-particles and NBI-produced fast ions whereas the impact of such fast ions in the minority heating (MH) ICRH schemes is substantially smaller. A possibility of ion heating enhancement due to the interference effect is shown for the MH scenarios. It is found that thermal ion heating becomes dominant in tritium-rich plasmas with T concentration ∼80%. The efficiency of ion heating in such a scenario is compared with the alternative 3He minority ICRH scenario in D : T = 50 : 50 plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]