Development of a hard X-ray detector for measuring continuous spectra generated by runaway electrons in VEST

Abstract A hard X-ray measurement system is developed to observe the activities of runaway electrons in versatile experiment spherical torus (VEST) at Seoul National University. The detection system provides information on the generation of runaway electrons by detecting hard X-rays from its bremsstrahlung radiation. To acquire such information, the X-ray spectrum at several tens to hundreds of keV at the maximum is reconstructed using signals from four thin scintillation detectors with different energy sensitivities, and the spectrum is converted to the original X-ray energy. The unfolding process is implemented by an artificial neural network model trained using a measured X-ray spectrum generated by an X-ray tube source at 50 to 320 keV. The system would reveal the generation mechanism of runaway electrons during plasma discharges with various MHD activities in VEST to mitigate and suppress runaway electrons.