Impact of Resonant Magnetic Perturbations on the Toroidal Location of the Runaway Electron Final Loss Strike Point
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 125102 – Published 23 March, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hxjs-v7q3
Abstract
It is demonstrated that the peak toroidal impact phase of the post-disruption runaway electrons (REs) can be varied shot to shot by means of applied static nonaxisymmetric (3D) magnetic fields, or resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs). In the experiments, high-current (500 kA), purged RE plateaus (i.e., low impurity postdisruption plasmas with current carried completely by REs) were terminated on the DIII-D tokamak center post. The global toroidal impact peak of the REs appears to be dominantly set by the toroidal phase of a wall-locked tearing mode, typically , but sometimes . In the absence of external RMP, the locked mode reliably locks close to a preferred toroidal phase probably set by intrinsic error fields. With applied RMP, the locked mode and RE impact phase is pushed to a new location. When the tearing mode is , the phase is well controlled and tracks the applied RMP phase, but in the case of an tearing mode, the new phase location is not well controlled. These results could have an application in international thermonuclear experimental reactor and other fusion power plant-sized tokamaks as a method for spreading disruption first wall damage from REs.