ITER collective Thomson scattering-Preparing to diagnose fusion-born alpha particles (invited).

The ITER Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic will measure the dynamics of fusion-born alpha particles in the burning ITER plasma by scattering a 1 MW 60 GHz gyrotron beam off fast-ion induced fluctuations in the plasma. The diagnostic will have seven measurement volumes across the ITER cross section and will resolve the alpha particle energies in the range from 300 keV to 3.5 MeV; importantly, the CTS diagnostic is the only diagnostic capable of measuring confined alpha particles for energies below ∼1.7 MeV and will also be sensitive to the other fast-ion populations. The temporal resolution is 100 ms, allowing the capture of dynamics on that timescale, and the typical spatial resolution is 10-50 cm. The development and design of the in-vessel and primary parts of the CTS diagnostic has been completed. This marks the beginning of a new phase of preparation to maximize the scientific benefit of the diagnostic, e.g., by investigating the capability to contribute to the determination of the fuel-ion ratio and the bulk ion temperature as well as integrating data analysis with other fast-ion and bulk-ion diagnostics.

Investigation of first mirror heating for the collective Thomson scattering diagnostic in ITER.

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) has the capabilities to measure phase space densities of fast ion populations in ITER resolved in configuration space, in velocity space, and in time. In the CTS system proposed for ITER, probing radiation at 60 GHz generated by two 1 MW gyrotrons is scattered in the plasma and collected by arrays of receivers. The transmission lines from the gyrotrons to the plasma and from the plasma to the receivers contain several quasioptical mirrors among other components. These are designed to produce astigmatic beam patterns in the plasma where the beam shapes will have a direct impact on the signal strength of the diagnostic, the spatial resolution, and the robustness of probe and receiver beam overlap against density excursions. The first mirror has a line of sight to the plasma and is thus exposed to severe neutron streaming. The present neutronics and thermomechanical modeling of a first mirror on the high field side indicates that the mirror curvature may warp due to heating. This may alter the beam quality, and therefore, thermal effects have to be accounted for during the design of the mirror. The modeling further demonstrates that thin mirrors are superior to thick mirrors from a thermomechanical point of view.