Plasma heating from alpha particle micro-instabilities

Potential use of thermonuclear (i.e., fusion product) driven kinetic instabilities to heat the background plasma has long been recognized. Considerable research on velocity space micro-instabilities exists. Most work to date has focused upon the basic physics criteria for and characteristics of particular micro-instabilities. Kinetic instabilities resulting in spatial transport of fusion products have also received some attention, but the effects on reactor concepts and performance remain uncertain. We have developed an engineering model which scopes the effect of a velocity space relaxation of fast alphas on a quasi-linear time scale. This model includes the additional heating to background plasma ions under the assumptions of: ion damping of the plasma wave; heating to background plasma results predominantly from fusion products; and periodic hiccups of the instability