Isotope mass scaling and transport comparison between JET Deuterium and Tritium L-mode plasmas

Abstract

Abstract The dimensionless isotope mass scaling experiment between pure Deuterium and pure Tritium plasmas with matched ρ ∗ , ν ∗ , β n , q and T e / T i has been achieved in JET L-mode with dominant electron heating (NBI+ohmic) conditions. 28% higher scaled energy confinement time B t τ E , t h / A is found in favour of the Tritium plasma. This can be cast in the form of the dimensionless energy confinement scaling law as Ω i τ E , t h ∼ A 0.48 ± 0.16 . This significant isotope mass scaling is consequently seen in the scaled one-fluid heat diffusion coefficient A χ e f f / B t which is around 50% lower in the Tritium plasma throughout the whole plasma radius. The isotope mass dependence in the particle transport channel is negligible, supported also by the perturbative particle transport analysis with gas puff modulation. The comparison of the edge particle fuelling or ionisation profiles from the EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations show that the absolute density differences that are necessary for the dimensionless match in the confined plasma dominate over any isotope mass dependencies of particle fuelling and ionization profiles at the plasma edge. Local GENE simulation results indicate a mild anti-gyroBohm effect at ρ t o r = 0.6 and thereby a small isotope mass dependence in favour of Tritium on heat transport and a negligible effect on particle transport. A significant fraction of the isotope scaling and reduced heat transport observed in the Tritium plasma is not captured in the GENE and ASTRA-TGLF-SAT2 simulations by simply changing the isotope mass for the same input profiles.