E. Haddad

Experimental demonstration of tokamak fuelling by compact toroid injection

The most promising concept for deep fuelling a reactor is by the injection of compact toroid (CT) plasmoids. The first results showing CT fuelling of a tokamak plasma, without any adverse perturbation to the tokamak discharge, are reported. The Compact Toroid Fueller (CTF) device was used to inject a CT-spheromak plasmoid into the TdeV tokamak. Following the CT penetration, the tokamak particle inventory increased by 16%, the loop voltage and the plasma current did not change, and there was no increase in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity. The number of injected impurities was low and dominated by non-metallic elements. The plasma diamagnetic energy and the energy confinement time increased by more than 35%

Biasing of closed double null poloidal divertor plates on TdeV

Abstract Bias voltages applied to the divertor plates in TdeV (Tokamak de Varennes) permit fine control of several main plasma parameters, including the poloidal rotation velocity near the separatrix, microturbulence, the sawtooth period and the heat pulse propagation speed. Biasing also improves the divertor efficiency in either the top or bottom closed divertor chamber depending on polarity, in agreement with E × B drifts. Negative biasing reduces carbon and CO fluxes from the wall, the loop voltage and the X-ray emissivity, all indicative of decreasing impurity contamination.

Effects of divertor plate biasing on radial and poloidal edge fluxes in the TdeV

The divertor plates of TdeV, a tokamak with a double-null divertor and closed divertor chambers, have been electrically biased with respect to the walls. The authors discuss the resulting effects on the edge electron density profile, on the neutral pressures and impurity fluxes in the main vacuum chamber and the divertor chambers, and on the plasma flow to the divertors. As a function of the bias voltage, which was varied between-180 V and +160 V, the electron density scrape-off width and the wall impurity influxes increase monotonically; the flows to the top and bottom divertors vary strongly, in qualitative agreement with an E*B/B2 rotation, but not symmetrically. With negative biasing, the electrostatic barrier and the rotation combine to give a strong improvement of the divertor efficiency

Improvements in recycling and impurity control obtained by divertor biasing

Experiments in which the divertor plates are biased with respect to the grounded vacuum chamber were conducted in the Tokamak de Varennes, with ohmic discharges and boronized walls. A comprehensive set of diagnostics was used and those effects relating to plasma-surface interactions and their consequences, namely recycling and impurity production, are reported here. The main conclusion is that the bias voltage actively controls the balance between the particle fluxes to the walls and the diverters, with a weak influence on the confinement. The quantities associated with plasma surface interactions, i.e. the impurity influx, the plasma contamination and the global recycling coefficient, increase as a function of the voltage applied between the plates and the wall. Typically, the quantities of interest vary by a factor of two or more in the range from -240 to 290 V. The poloidal fluxes to the upper or lower divertor are enhanced by negative or positive biasing, respectively, in agreement with the sign of the E*B drift. For negative biasing the reduction in the wall flux and increase in the poloidal flux combine to improve greatly the divertor efficiency: the divertor pressure and the impurity retention time are increased by factors of up to 5 and 8, respectively. The above effects, together with the SOL density profiles and the biasing current-voltage characteristic, are consistent with a model in which the radial transport in the SOL is limited by the ion mobility; a mobility of 0.04 m2/V.s is found. Besides allowing active density and impurity control, it is suggested that biasing could facilitate the attainment of a radiative divertor by injection of well retained impurities in the divertor

Comparison of three boronization techniques in TdeV

Preparation of the internal walls of tokamaks by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) of boron containing films has now been implemented on several machines since its development on TEXTOR. More recently, such films were deposited on the internal walls of TdeV using not only this procedure but also two new approaches: solid target boronization (STB) which consisted in inserting a low-density boronized carbon-carbon (C-C) composite into the tokamak plasma and TMB fuelling where trimethylboron was used as fuelling gas during the plasma discharge. These approaches resulted in a rapid shot to shot improvement of important parameters such as the volume averaged resistivity and radiated power over the first dozen shots when the boron source is present. Typically, the resistivity is reduced from ∼4.0×10 −7 to ∼2.5×10 −7 Ωm, comparable to the resistivity obtained with PECVD. The radiated power relative to the ohmic power is reduced by a factor of 2 from 20 to 10%. When the boron source, present during STB or TMB fuelling, is removed however, these plasma parameters start increasing. Within a few tens of shots, they have reverted to their preconditioning values, a situation which requires hundreds of shots after PECVD.

Controlled detachment and particle transport in the divertor plasma in TdeV

Abstract At high densities, the plasma detaches from the outboard divertor plates in TdeV. The signatures are a reduction of the ion flux to the divertor plate, movement of the radiating zone from the plate toward the X-point, a pressure gradient between an ionization front and the target plate, and strong cross-field transport in the divertor. A toroidally-viewing TV imaging system allows us to observe local interactions between the divertor plasma and the different divertor plates. As the plasma detaches, the gas pressure in the divertor continues to rise, and there is evidence for molecular processes in the cold plasma near the divertor plates. Auxiliary heating increases the power and particle flow across the separatrix; our results suggest that detachment depends on the energy transported per particle. Simulations using the B2/EIRENE and DIVIMP codes give reasonable agreement with the measurements for the attached phase.

Divertor retention of metallic impurities during neutralization plate biasing on TdeV

Laser ablation injection of aluminium is used to measure the retention of metallic impurities in the lower poloidal divertor of TdeV. A detailed calibration of the ablation process allows the determination of the quantity and velocity distribution of the injected particles. The experiment measures the flow of the injected particles from the divertor to the main plasma. Negative biasing of the divertor neutralization plates is shown to improve the retention in the active divertor by a factor of at least four at -200 V. A simple model is developed to show that the improved confinement is due to the increased poloidal flux to the divertor during biasing

Retention of Ne and N2 in the closed and pumped TdeV divertor with attached and detached plasmas

Abstract We have studied the retention of a recycling impurity, neon, and a wall-pumped impurity, nitrogen, in the closed and cryopumped divertor of the TdeV tokamak, under a variety of heating, puffing, pumping and biasing conditions. Retention times were deduced from either the decay time or the rise time of the plasma impurity content, measured spectroscopically, following either a short puff or a steady injection. For both neon and nitrogen, the compression ratio increases rapidly with the main plasma density. Retention is not degraded by plasma detachment. In density scans, other conditions being kept constant, the compression ratio for neon is found to grow with the divertor neutral pressure as ∼ P D 1.5 . However, by puffing, pumping or biasing, retention and P D can be varied quite independently of each other.

Impurities in TdeV with and without conditioning by trimethylboron/helium glow discharge

Abstract Boronisation by glow discharge with 30% B(CH3)3 in He was applied in the TdeV tokamak. Plasma current and density scans were performed before and after the process; the impurity influxes (visible spectroscopy and mass spectrometry), the plasma contamination (VUV spectroscopy and effective ion charge Z eff ) and the radiated power P rad were measured. The density limit was investigated. The lifetime of the conditioning effect was correlated with surface analysis of wall samples. Without boronisation, Z eff , P rad and a large fraction of the particle recycling were determined by oxygen from the residual gas. The density limit was (3.5−4.0)×10 19 m -3 and a shrinkage of the plasma radius occured at low current and high density. With boronisation, oxygen is reduced several fold, and ( Z eff −1 ) and P rad are reduced by ≈60%. Also, plasma shrinkage is eliminated and the density limit is increased to ≈5×10 19 m -3 . The lifetime of the effect seems to be mostly determined by saturation of the boron layer by oxygen.

Retention of intrinsic gases in TdeV's biasable divertor

The screening effect of the divertor plasma against the backflow of gas into the plasma core is studied on TdeV, a double-null tokamak with biasable neutralizing plates. Accumulation of intrinsic impurities in the divertor chamber is observed, and negative biasing of the plates causes a strong enhancement of the effect. The divertor gas composition is correlated with the line radiation emitted in the vicinity of the plates and with the plasma impurity content. Using a simple particle balance model, it is concluded that H 2 flows unimpeded through, the divertor slit, but that the backflow of other gases is significantly weaker than predicted by the vacuum conductance, e.g. by a factor of ≥4 in the case of CO.