Study of heat and synchrotron radiation transport in fusion tokamak plasmas. Application to the modelling of steady state and fast burn termination scenarios for the international experimental fusion reactor ITER

The aim of this thesis is to give a global scope of the problem of energy transport within a thermonuclear plasma in the context of its power balance and the implications when modelling ITER operating scenarios. This is made in two phases. First, by furnishing new elements to the existing models of heat and synchrotron radiation transport in a thermonuclear plasma. Second, by applying the improved models to plasma engineering studies of ITER operating scenarios. The scenarios modelled are the steady state operating point and the transient that appears to have the biggest technological implications: the fast burn termination. The conduction-convection losses are modelled through the energy confinement time. This parameter is empirically obtained from the existing experimental data, since the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In chapter 2 an expression for the energy confinement time is semi-analytically deduced from the Rebut-Lallia-Watkins local transport model. The current estimates of the synchrotron radiation losses are made with expressions of the dimensionless transparency factor deduced from a 0-dimensional cylindrical model proposed by Trubnikov in 1979. In chapter 3 realistic hypothesis for the cases of cylindrical and toroidal geometry are included in the model to deduce compact explicit expressions for the fast numerical computation of the synchrotron radiation losses. Numerical applications are provided for the cylindrical case. The results are checked against the existing models. In chapter 4, the nominal operating point of ITER and its thermal stability is studied by means of a 0-dimensional burn model of the thermonuclear plasma in ignition. This model is deduced by the elements furnished by the plasma particle and power balance. Possible heat overloading on the plasma facing components may provoke severe structural damage, implying potential safety problems related to tritium inventory and metal activation. In chapter 5, the assessment of fast burn termination scenarios in ITER is made by combining thermalhydraulic and fusion plasma modelling codes that implement the results obtained in the preceding sections. (author)