Multi-mode transport modeling of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)

Predictions are made for the performance of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) [R. Aymar, V. Chuyanov, M. Huguet, R. Parker, and Y. Shimomura, in Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Energy Conference, Montreal, Canada 1996 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1997), Paper IAEA-CN-64/01-1] design using the Multi-Mode model in the time-dependent one- and one-half-dimensional (1-1/2-D) BALDUR [C. E. Singer et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 49, 275 (1988)] transport code. This model predicts the temperature and density profiles observed in present-day tokamak experiments more closely on the average than other models currently available. Simulations using the Multi-Mode transport model, with its inherent gyro-Bohm scaling, indicate that ITER will ignite, even with edge temperatures as low as 0.25 keV (L-mode, or low-confinement mode, boundary conditions) or with volume averaged density as low as 0.775 X 10(20) m(-3) (just below the Greenwald density limit, when T-edge = 0.75 keV). The ignition is found to be thermally stable, and the fusion power production is easily controlled by varying plasma density, impurity content, or edge temperatures. The nonequilibrium impurity radiation model used in these simulations predicts that a significant fraction of the fusion power is radiated when conditions are close to marginal ignition. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)01806-0]