Integrated modelling of the ramp-up phase of JT-60SA baseline and hybrid scenarios in view of operations

The JT-60SA superconducting tokamak, built and operated jointly by Europe and Japan, achieved its first plasma in October 2023. This will be the largest magnetically confined fusion experiment in the world for the coming years, before the start of ITER operations, supporting the exploitation of ITER and the investigation of key physics and engineering issues for future demonstration power plants [1, 2]. The parameters of the scenarios that will be studied by JT-60SA, reported in [1, p. 10], have been determined with the help of the equilibrium code ACCOME, then checked and improved with 0.5-D simulations using the METIS code [3] and finally confirmed by means of more sophisticated 1.5-D transport codes [4]. The ramp-up phase of the advanced inductive (hybrid) scenario has also been modelled with the JINTRAC [5] suite of codes, confirming the results of METIS [6], and with the CRONOS code [7]. However, the scenarios that will be developed in the next operational phase (OP2), expected to start in ~2026, will be limited by the heating and current drive availability of the machine, as well as by the heat handling capability of the first lower divertor, and will therefore differ from the target scenarios. Consequently, a great effort is being devoted to the initial development of integrated scenarios, including transport predictions, MHD stability and control, in order to maximise the scientific outcome of the Initial Research Phase within the capabilities of the machine. This work shows the results of the predictive integrated modelling of the baseline and hybrid scenarios in view of OP2, whose global parameters are reported in Table 1. The scenarios reported here are meant as a starting point for future optimizations and a first step for approaching their maximum parameters