Development of Neutron Emission Spectroscopy Instrumentation for Deuterium and Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Plasmas at JET

Abstract: The study of high power fusion plasmas at the JET tokamak has been further enhanced through the development of instrumentation for neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) measurements. This has involved the upgrade of the magnetic proton recoil (MPR) spectrometer used for deuterium-tritium plasmas earlier so that the MPRu can now be also employed for deuterium (D) plasmas. A neutron time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer designed for optimized rate (TOFOR) has been constructed and put into operation. The MPRu and TOFOR spectrometers were carried out as part of the JET enhanced performance program and represent the most advanced instrumentation for NES diagnosis of both D and DT tokamak plasmas setting a central platform for R&D direct to the next step in fusion research to be carried out with ITER.The MPRu work presented in this thesis concerns the development of a new focal plane detector based on the phoswich scintillator technique. The main objective of this sub-project was to increase the signal-to-background ratio to permit measurement of the 2.5-MeV neutron emission from d+d-->3He+n reactions and, hence, allow NES diagnosis of D plasmas. The objective was achieved as demonstrated in preliminary measurements at JET.The development of TOFOR from concept to construction is presented in the thesis including, in particular, the commissioning of the instrument at JET. The objective of the TOFOR project was to achieve the same high performance in the NES diagnosis of D plasmas as had earlier been demonstrated by the MPR for DT plasmas. TOFOR has been used in the first plasma physics experiments reported in this thesis. These demonstrate that the performance objectives have been achieved as tested, in particular, in the observation of auxiliary heating effects on velocity distribution of the deuterium population.