Cherenkov probes and runaway electrons diagnostics

Abstract

The beams of fast runaway electrons (RE), which are often produced during tokamak discharges, are particularly dangerous and can induce serious damages of the vacuum vessel and internal components of the machine. The proper and fast diagnostics of RE beams is essential for controlling the discharge, e.g., by early mitigation of disruptions and potentially dangerous RE beams. The diagnostics of RE beams is usually based on measurements of the radiation emitted either by these electrons, or as a result of their interactions with plasma and/or vessel walls. Such a radiation is usually recorded by the means of probes placed outside the vacuum vessel. The method developed by our team is based on the probe located inside the vacuum vessel. The probe can be used to detect highly localized RE bunches and to determine their spatial and temporal characteristics. During last few years, the NCBJ team have developed and used the RE diagnostics based on the Cherenkov effect observed in diamond radiators coupled with fast photomultipliers. During the investigated discharges, the probe was inserted into the vacuum vessel, and its head was placed at the plasma edge, where fast RE are expected. A correlation between signals recorded using our probes and other diagnostics, e.g., hard x-ray signals, was also studied. In this paper, we present recent results of the RE measurements by means of Cherenkov probes, which were performed in the COMPASS and TCV tokamaks.