Pellet ablation modeling in reactor-grade plasmas with fusion-born alpha particles

The modeling of fuel pellet ablation is performed for two ablating species: plasma electrons and fusion-born alpha particles. A transonic flow, neutral-shielding model is adapted, and the electrons and alphas are modeled in the monoenergetic representation. Numerical solutions of the eigenvalue equations describing both the shielding cloud hydrodynamics and the energy degradation of the ablating species, enable the formulation of simple scaling laws for the pellet ablation rate due to the combined effect of electrons and alphas. For the Tokamak Ignition/Burn Experimental Reactor Engineering Test Reactor design, a moderate alpha enhancement of --5% of the electron ablation rate is calculated.