The influence of the radial particle transport on the divertor plasma detachment

Divertor plasma detachment is the most promising candidate to reduce the divertor heat load in fusion reactors. Present understanding of detachment physics is not sufficient to adequately reproduce experimental observations. Understanding and control of detachment physics is indispensable to design the divertor in future machines. To improve the quality of divertor modeling and reveal limitations of the detachment physics built into state-of-the-art codes, an integrated divertor code SONIC has been applied to modeling of the JT-60U detached divertor plasma. In this study, the radial diffusion coefficient in the private region or the far SOL region is increased to investigate the influence of radial plasma transport on detachment characteristics. Saturation of the reduction in ion flux after roll-over is improved by the radial transport enhancement, while the radial profile at the mid-plane agreed with the experimental data. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.