Overview

A key issue in burning plasmas is the behavior of energetic particles. In ITER, fusion alpha particles, as well as fast beam ions, are expected to resonantly destabilize Alfvén instabilities such as Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAE) and Energetic Particle Modes (EPM), leading to the possibility of significant fast ion loss to the wall. These instabilities and the related fast ion loss and radial redistribution can directly affect thermal plasma transport via fast ion-generated plasma flow, plasma current, and plasma heating.

The goal of PEPSC  is nonlinear simulation of energetic particle-driven instabilities in burning plasmas. The most advanced numerical methods and powerful parallel computers will be needed to carry out this task because high resolution in space, velocity, and time is required to resolve the fine structure of the multiple unstable modes expected in ITER. The simulation also requires a validated kinetic/MHD hybrid code, which can reproduce the underlying MHD waves accurately and treat the kinetic effects of both background ions and energetic particles, explicitly. The Center will emphasize the use of the kinetic/fluid hybrid approach, which has the advantage of encompassing both fluid-like and micro-kinetic plasma behavior.