Ripple loss of alpha particles in a low-aspect-ratio tokamak reactor

Studies on the loss of alpha particles enhanced by toroidal field (TF) ripple in a low-aspect-ratio tokamak reactor (VECTOR) have been made by using an orbit-following Monte-Carlo code. In actual TF coil systems, the ripple loss of alpha particles is strongly reduced as the aspect ratio becomes low (the power loss ∝ A8.8 for A≥2.5) and the reduction of the number of TF coils results in a large amount of ripple loss even in a low-aspect-ratio tokamak. To reduce the number of TF coils from 12 to 6, about 40% of coil size enlargement is necessary in VECTOR. Ferrite plates are very effective to reduce ripple losses of alpha particles. By using ferrite plates, the coil size enlargement for N=6 can be relaxed to 15% and the number of coils can be reduced from 12 to 8 without enlargement of coil size in VECTOR. (author)