POSSIBILITY OF DETERMINING THE ISOTOPE COMPOSITION OF A DENSE-PLASMA BY THE FLUXES OF CHARGE-EXCHANGE ATOMS

The possibility of the use of charge-exchange neutral particle diagnos tics for determining the isotope composition of a hot dense plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor is discussed. The method is based on simultan eous measurement of fluxes of charge-exchange atoms of hydrogen isotop es leaving the plasma. Since the fluxes are proportional to the concen trations of the corresponding ions in the plasma, the measurement of d istribution functions of these fluxes can be used for determining the ratio between ion concentrations in a plasma. The results of the numer ical simulation of the charge-exchange atom fluxes in a plasma with IT ER parameters are presented. On the basis of calculation results, the plasma region for which the proposed method can be applied is determin ed, and the sensitivity of the method to variations in plasma paramete rs is analyzed. It is shown that passive measurements of atom fluxes i n the thermal energy range 10-200 keV can provide information about th e plasma isotope composition at a distance of 0.1-1.5 m from the plasm a edge.