Runaway electron generation during plasma shutdown by killer pellet injection

Tokamak discharges are sometimes terminated by disruptions that may cause large mechanical and thermal loads on the vessel. To mitigate disruption-induced problems it has been proposed that “killer” pellets could be injected into the plasma in order to safely terminate the discharge. Killer pellets enhance radiative energy loss and thereby lead to rapid cooling and shutdown of the discharge. But pellets may also cause runaway electron generation, as has been observed in experiments in several tokamaks. In the present work, runaway dynamics in connection with deuterium or carbon pellet-induced fast plasma shutdown is considered. A pellet code which calculates the material deposition and initial cooling caused by the pellet is coupled to a runaway code, which determines the subsequent temperature evolution and runaway generation. In this way, a tool has been created to test the suitability of different pellet injection scenarios for disruption mitigation. If runaway generation is avoided, the resulting current quench times are too long to safely avoid large forces on the vessel due to halo currents. PACS numbers: 52.55.Fa, 52.40.Hf Submitted to: Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion Runaway electron generation during plasma shutdown by killer pellet injection 2