D. K. Owens

Enhancement of Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor performance by lithium conditioning

Wall conditioning in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [K. M. McGuire et al., Phys. Plasmas 2, 2176 (1995)] by injection of lithium pellets into the plasma has resulted in large improvements in deuterium–tritium fusion power production (up to 10.7 MW), the Lawson triple product (up to 1021 m−3 s keV), and energy confinement time (up to 330 ms). The maximum plasma current for access to high‐performance supershots has been increased from 1.9 to 2.7 MA, leading to stable operation at plasma stored energy values greater than 5 MJ. The amount of lithium on the limiter and the effectiveness of its action are maximized through (1) distributing the Li over the limiter surface by injection of four Li pellets into Ohmic plasmas of increasing major and minor radius, and (2) injection of four Li pellets into the Ohmic phase of supershot discharges before neutral‐beam heating is begun.

Enhanced carbon influx into TFTR supershots

Under some conditions, a very large influx of carbon into TFTR occurs during neutral beam injection into low recycling plasmas (the supershot regime). These carbon blooms result in serious degradation of plasma parameters. The sources of this carbon have been identified as hot spots on the TFTR bumper limiter at or near the last closed flux surface. Two separate temperature thresholds have been identified. One threshold, at about 1650°C, is consistent with radiation enhanced sublimation (RES). The other, at about 2300°C, appears to be thermal sublimation of carbon from the limiter. The carbon influx can be quantitatively accounted for by taking laboratory values for RES rates, making reasonable assumptions about the extent of the blooming area and assuming unity carbon recycling at the limiter. Such high carbon recycling is expected, and it is shown that, in target plasmas at least, it is observed on TFTR. The sources of the carbon blooms are sites which have either loosely attached fragments of limiter material (caused by damage) or surfaces that are nearly perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. Such surfaces may have local power depositions two orders of magnitude higher than usual. The TFTR team modified the limiter during the opening of winter 1989–1990. The modifications greatly reduced the number and magnitude of the blooms, so that they are no longer a problem.

Ion cyclotron range of frequencies stabilization of sawteeth on Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Results obtained from experiments utilizing high‐power ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating to stabilize sawtooth oscillations on Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Hawryluk et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 33, 1509 (1991)] are reviewed. The key observations include existence of a minimum ICRF power required to achieve stabilization, a dependence of the stabilization threshold on the relative size of the ICRF power deposition profile to the q=1 volume, and a peaking of the equilibrium pressure and current profiles during sawtooth‐free phases of the discharges. In addition, preliminary measurements of the poloidal magnetic field profile indicate that q on axis decreases to a value of 0.55±0.15 after a sawtooth‐stabilized period of ∼0.5 sec has transpired. The results are discussed in the context of theory, which suggests that the fast ions produced by the ICRF heating suppress sawteeth by stabilizing the m=1 magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities believed to be the trigger for the sawt...

Investigation of global Alfvén instabilities in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAE) were excited by the energetic neutral beam ions tangentially injected into plasmas at low magnetic field in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Research (IAEA, Vienna, 1987), Vol. 1, p. 51]. The injection velocities were comparable to the Alfven speed. The modes were identified by measurements from Mirnov coils and beam emission spectroscopy (BES). TAE modes appear in bursts whose repetition rate increases with beam power. The neutron emission rate exhibits sawtoothlike behavior and the crashes always coincide with TAE bursts. This indicates ejection of fast ions from the plasma until these modes are stabilized. The dynamics of growth and stabilization were investigated at various plasma currents and magnetic fields. The results indicate that the instability can effectively clamp the number of energetic ions in the plasmas. The observed instability threshold is discussed in light of recent theories. In addition to these TAE modes, intermittent oscillations at three times the fundamental TAE frequency were observed by Mirnov coils, but no corresponding signal was found in BES. It appears that these high‐frequency oscillations do not have a direct effect on the plasma neutron source strength.

Plasma fluxes to surfaces for an oblique magnetic field

The poloidal and toroidal spatial distributions of D α , He I and C II emission have been obtained in the vicinity of the TFTR bumper limiter and are compared with models of ion flow to the surface. The distributions are found not to agree with a model (the “cosine” model) which determines the incident flux density using only the parallel fluxes in the scrape-off layer and the projected area of the surface perpendicular to the field lines. In particular, the cosine model is not able to explain the significant fluxes observed at locations on the surface which are oblique to the magnetic field. It is further shown that these fluxes cannot be explained by the finite Larmor radii of impinging ions. Finally, it is demonstrated, with the use of Monte Carlo codes, that the distributions can be explained by including both parallel and cross-field transport onto the limiter surface.

Spectroscopic measurements of the parameters of the ablation clouds of deuterium pellets injected into tokamaks

Spectroscopic measurements have been made of the parameters of the luminous cloud surrounding deuterium pellets injected into the Princeton Large Torus (PLT) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1398 (1985)] and the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research (IAEA, Vienna, 1987), Vol. 1, p. 171], with the measurements on the latter described formally here for the first time. The electron densities determined from the Stark broadening of the Balmer alpha and beta lines ranged from 5×1015–1×1018 cm−3, while the temperatures obtained from the line to continuum intensity ratios and the ratio of the intensities of the Balmer alpha and beta lines ranged from 0.9 to 3 eV. Balmer alpha emission powers as high as 100 kW were measured. The electron temperature (1.5±0.2 eV) and density (3±1×1017 cm−3 ) at the time of maximum emission from intact pellets were essentially the same for the two tokamaks, although the volumes of both the discharges and the pellets were roughly ten times la...

Operating experiences with the TFTR escaping alpha detectors

This paper reviews the operating experiences obtained with a set of scintillator‐based escaping fast ion detectors which have been used successfully for several years on the TFTR tokamak. There have been several operational problems which need to be resolved before these detectors are used to measure 3.5 MeV DT alphas in 1993. The main problem has been overheating by edge plasma heat flux for large major radius plasmas, when the detectors were not shadowed by the adjacent limiter. Other problems have been due to runaway electron‐induced x‐ray flux and scintillator and foil damage.

Experiments utilizing ion cyclotron range of frequencies heating on the TFTR tokamak

A variety of experiments have been performed on the TFTR tokamak [Wilson et al., Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research 1988 (IAEA, Vienna, 1989), Vol. 1, p. 691] utilizing ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating. Of special interest has been the insight into plasma performance gained by utilizing a different heating scheme other than the usual neutral beam injection (NBI). Utilizing ICRF heating allows control over the power deposition profile independent of the plasma fueling profile. In addition, by varying the minority concentration the power split between ion and electron heating can be varied. Confinement has been examined in high recycling gas fueled discharges, low recycling supershot plasmas, and peaked density pellet fueled discharges. Global confinement is found not to be affected by the method or localization of plasma heating, but the calculated local diffusivities vary with the power deposition profile to yield similar global values. In addition, sawtooth stabilizati...

Constraints on escaping alpha particle detectors for ignited tokamaks

Several modifications to existing escaping alpha scintillation detectors in TFTR will be needed before they could be used on ignited tokamaks such as CIT or ITER. The main difficulties are the large heat flux at the desired detector locations and the accumulated radiation damage to the scintillator itself. Constraints imposed by these problems can probably be overcome by using remotely movable (and removable) detectors.

Power loading on the first wall during disruptions in TFTR

Heating of the first wall of TFTR due to disruptions is investigated experimentally using an extensive array of thermocouples. By comparing results from discharges with and without disruptions, we extract effects due to the disruption alone. Disruptions preferentially heat the same areas which are heated during discharges without disruptions. Hot areas are inward protrusions or regions unshielded by neighboring areas. Peaking factors in the toroidal direction, defined as peak temperature divided by average toroidal temperature, as a function of poloidal angle, are calculated. For nondisruptive discharges, the peaking factor varies between 2 and 4. For the disruptive portion of a discharge only, the peaking factor near the midplane, where most of the energy is deposited, ranges from 3 to 5. Further away from the midplane, the peaking factor can reach 28, although the heat load is less in that region.