A time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer for measurement of the 2.5-MeV neutron emission from fusion plasmas has been developed and put into use at the JET tokamak. It has been optimized for operation at high rates (TOFOR) for the purpose of performing advanced neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnosis of deuterium plasmas with a focus on the fuel ion motional states for different auxiliary heating scenarios. This requires operation over a large dynamic range, including high rates of > 100 kHz with a maximum value of 0.5 MHz for the TOFOR design. This paper describes the design principles and their technical realization. The performance is illustrated with recent neutron TOF spectra recorded for plasmas subjected to different heating scenarios. A true event count rate of 39 kHz has been achieved at about a tenth of the expected neutron yield limit of JET, giving a projected maximum of 400 kHz at peak JET plasma yield. This means that the count rate capability for NES diagnosis of D plasmas has been improved more than an order of magnitude. Another important performance factor is the spectrometer bandwidth, where data have been acquired and analyzed successfully with a response function for neutrons over the energy range 1 to > 5 MeV. The implications of instrumental advancement represented by TOFOR are discussed.
A time-of-flight neutron spectrometer (TOFOR) has been developed to measure the 2.45 MeV d+d3He+n neutron emission from D plasmas. The TOFOR design features the capability to operate at high rates in the 100 kHz range, data collection with fast time digitizing and storing, and monitoring of the signals from the scintillation detectors used. This article describes the principles of the instrument and its installation at JET and presents preliminary data to illustrate the TOFOR performance as a neutron emission spectroscopy diagnostic.
The diagnostics functions of neutron measurements as well as the roles played by neutron yield monitors, cameras and spectrometers are reviewed. The importance of recent developments in neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnostics is emphasized. Results are presented from the NES diagnosis of the Joint European Torus (JET) plasmas performed with the magnetic proton recoil (MPR) spectrometer during the first deuterium tritium experiment of 1997 and the recent trace tritium experiment of 2003. The NES diagnostic capabilities at JET are presently being enhanced by an upgrade of the MPR (MPRu) and a new 2.5 MeV time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer (TOFOR). The principles of MPRu and TOFOR are described and illustrated with the diagnostic role they will play in the high performance fusion experiments in the forward programme of JET largely aimed at supporting the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The importance of the JET NES effort for ITER is discussed.
A determination of fast ion population parameters such as intensity and kinetic temperature is important for fusion reactors. This becomes more challenging with finer time resolution of the measurements, since the limited data in each time slice cause increasing statistical variations in the data. This paper describes a framework using Bayesian-regularized neural networks (NNs) designed for such a task. The method is applied to the TOFOR 2.5 MeV fusion neutron spectrometer at JET. NN training data are generated by random sampling of variables in neutron spectroscopy models. Ranges and probability distributions of the parameters are chosen to match the experimental data. Results have shown good performance both on synthetic and experimental data. The latter was assessed by statistical considerations and by examining the robustness and time consistency of the results. The regularization of the training algorithm allowed for higher time resolutions than simple forward methods. The fast execution time makes this approach suitable for real-time analysis with a time resolution limit in the microsecond time scale.
The measurement of fast ion populations is one of the diagnostic capabilities provided by neutron emission spectroscopy (NES). NES measurements were carried out during JET trace tritium campaign with the magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer. A favorable plasma scenario is (T)D where the resulting 14 MeV neutron yield is dominated by suprathermal emission from energetic tritons accelerated by radio frequency at their fundamental cyclotron frequency. Information on the triton distribution function has been derived from NES data with a simple model based on two components referred to as bulk (B) and high energy (HE). The HE component is based on strongly anisotropic tritium distribution that can be used for routine best-fit analysis to provide tail temperature values (THE). This article addresses to what extent the THE values are model dependent by comparing the model above with a two-temperature (bi-) Maxwellian model featuring parallel and perpendicular temperatures. The bi-Maxwellian model is strongly anisotropic and frequently used for radio frequency theory.