E. Viezzer

Impurity seeding for tokamak power exhaust: from present devices via ITER to DEMO

A future fusion reactor is expected to have all-metal plasma facing materials (PFMs) to ensure low erosion rates, low tritium retention and stability against high neutron fluences. As a consequence, intrinsic radiation losses in the plasma edge and divertor are low in comparison to devices with carbon PFMs. To avoid localized overheating in the divertor, intrinsic low-Z and medium-Z impurities have to be inserted into the plasma to convert a major part of the power flux into radiation and to facilitate partial divertor detachment. For burning plasma conditions in ITER, which operates not far above the L–H threshold power, a high divertor radiation level will be mandatory to avoid thermal overload of divertor components. Moreover, in a prototype reactor, DEMO, a high main plasma radiation level will be required in addition for dissipation of the much higher alpha heating power. For divertor plasma conditions in present day tokamaks and in ITER, nitrogen appears most suitable regarding its radiative characteristics. If elevated main chamber radiation is desired as well, argon is the best candidate for the simultaneous enhancement of core and divertor radiation, provided sufficient divertor compression can be obtained. The parameter Psep/R, the power flux through the separatrix normalized by the major radius, is suggested as a suitable scaling (for a given electron density) for the extrapolation of present day divertor conditions to larger devices. The scaling for main chamber radiation from small to large devices has a higher, more favourable dependence of about Prad,main/R2. Krypton provides the smallest fuel dilution for DEMO conditions, but has a more centrally peaked radiation profile compared to argon. For investigation of the different effects of main chamber and divertor radiation and for optimization of their distribution, a double radiative feedback system has been implemented in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG). About half the ITER/DEMO values of Psep/R have been achieved so far, and close to DEMO values of Prad,main/R2, albeit at lower Psep/R. Further increase of this parameter may be achieved by increasing the neutral pressure or improving the divertor geometry.

The effect of a metal wall on confinement in JET and ASDEX Upgrade

In both JET and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) the plasma energy confinement has been affected by the presence of a metal wall by the requirement of increased gas fuelling to avoid tungsten pollution of the plasma. In JET with a beryllium/tungsten wall the high triangularity baseline H-mode scenario (i.e. similar to the ITER reference scenario) has been the strongest affected and the benefit of high shaping to give good normalized confinement of H98???1 at high Greenwald density fraction of fGW???0.8 has not been recovered to date. In AUG with a full tungsten wall, a good normalized confinement H98???1 could be achieved in the high triangularity baseline plasmas, albeit at elevated normalized pressure ?N?>?2. The confinement lost with respect to the carbon devices can be largely recovered by the seeding of nitrogen in both JET and AUG. This suggests that the absence of carbon in JET and AUG with a metal wall may have affected the achievable confinement. Three mechanisms have been tested that could explain the effect of carbon or nitrogen (and the absence thereof) on the plasma confinement. First it has been seen in experiments and by means of nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations (with the GENE code), that nitrogen seeding does not significantly change the core temperature profile peaking and does not affect the critical ion temperature gradient. Secondly, the dilution of the edge ion density by the injection of nitrogen is not sufficient to explain the plasma temperature and pressure rise. For this latter mechanism to explain the confinement improvement with nitrogen seeding, strongly hollow Zeff profiles would be required which is not supported by experimental observations. The confinement improvement with nitrogen seeding cannot be explained with these two mechanisms. Thirdly, detailed pedestal structure analysis in JET high triangularity baseline plasmas have shown that the fuelling of either deuterium or nitrogen widens the pressure pedestal. However, in JET-ILW this only leads to a confinement benefit in the case of nitrogen seeding where, as the pedestal widens, the obtained pedestal pressure gradient is conserved. In the case of deuterium fuelling in JET-ILW the pressure gradient is strongly degraded in the fuelling scan leading to no net confinement gain due to the pedestal widening. The pedestal code EPED correctly predicts the pedestal pressure of the unseeded plasmas in JET-ILW within ?5%, however it does not capture the complex variation of pedestal width and gradient with fuelling and impurity seeding. Also it does not predict the observed increase of pedestal pressure by nitrogen seeding in JET-ILW. Ideal peeling ballooning MHD stability analysis shows that the widening of the pedestal leads to a down shift of the marginal stability boundary by only 10?20%. However, the variations in the pressure gradient observed in the JET-ILW fuelling experiment is much larger and spans a factor of more than two. As a result the experimental points move from deeply unstable to deeply stable on the stability diagram in a deuterium fuelling scan. In AUG-W nitrogen seeded plasmas, a widening of the pedestal has also been observed, consistent with the JET observations. The absence of carbon can thus affect the pedestal structure, and mainly the achieved pedestal gradient, which can be recovered by seeding nitrogen. The underlying physics mechanism is still under investigation and requires further understanding of the role of impurities on the pedestal stability and pedestal structure formation.

High-resolution charge exchange measurements at ASDEX Upgrade

The charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) diagnostics at ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) have been upgraded and extended to provide high-resolution measurements of impurity ion temperature, density, and rotation profiles. The existing core toroidal CXRS diagnostic has been refurbished to increase the level of signal, thus enabling shorter exposure times down to 3.5 ms. Additional lines of sight provide more detailed profiles and enable simultaneous measurements of multiple impurities. In addition, a new CXRS system has been installed, which allows for the measurement of poloidal impurity ion rotation in the plasma edge with high temporal (1.9 ms) and spatial resolution (down to 5 mm). A new wavelength correction method has been implemented to perform in situ wavelength calibrations on a shot-to-shot basis. Absolute measurements of the poloidal impurity ion rotation with uncertainties smaller than 1.5 km/s have been obtained. Comparison of all the CXRS measurements provides a consistency check of the diagnostics and good agreement has been found for all of the CXRS systems.

Partial detachment of high power discharges in ASDEX Upgrade

Detachment of high power discharges is obtained in ASDEX Upgrade by simultaneous feedback control of core radiation and divertor radiation or thermoelectric currents by the injection of radiating impurities. So far 2/3 of the ITER normalized heat flux Psep/R = 15 MW m−1 has been obtained in ASDEX Upgrade under partially detached conditions with a peak target heat flux well below 10 MW m−2. When the detachment is further pronounced towards lower peak heat flux at the target, substantial changes in edge localized mode (ELM) behaviour, density and radiation distribution occur. The time-averaged peak heat flux at both divertor targets can be reduced below 2 MW m−2, which offers an attractive DEMO divertor scenario with potential for simpler and cheaper technical solutions. Generally, pronounced detachment leads to a pedestal and core density rise by about 20–40%, moderate (<20%) confinement degradation and a reduction of ELM size. For AUG conditions, some operational challenges occur, like the density cut-off limit for X-2 electron cyclotron resonance heating, which is used for central tungsten control.

High-accuracy characterization of the edge radial electric field at ASDEX Upgrade

The installation of a new poloidal charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) diagnostic at ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) has enabled the determination of the radial electric field, Er, using the radial force balance of impurity ions. Er has been derived from charge exchange (CX) spectra measured on different impurity species, such as He2+, B5+, C6+ and Ne10+. The resulting Er profiles are found to be identical within the uncertainties regardless of the impurity species used, thus, demonstrating the validity of the diagnostic technique. The Er profile has been compared to the main ion pressure gradient term, which is found to be the dominant contribution at the plasma edge, thus, supporting that the Er well is created by the main ion species. The Er profile has been measured in different confinement regimes including L-, I- and H-mode. The depth of the Er well and the magnitude of the Er shear are correlated with the ion pressure at the pedestal top. The temporal evolution of the measured CX profiles and the resulting Er have been studied during an edge-localized mode (ELM) cycle. At the ELM crash, the Er minimum is less deep resulting in a reduction of the E???B shear. Within 2?ms after the ELM crash, the edge kinetic profiles have nearly recovered and the Er well is observed to recover simultaneously. In high density type-I ELM mitigated H-mode plasmas, obtained via externally applied magnetic perturbations (MPs) with toroidal mode number n?=?2, no clear effect on Er due to the MPs has been observed.

Core momentum and particle transport studies in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak

Core momentum and particle transport in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) have been examined in a wide variety of plasma discharges and via several different methods. Experiments were performed in which ECRH power was added to NBI heated H-modes causing the electron and impurity ion density profiles to peak and the core toroidal rotation to flatten. Turbulence calculations of these plasmas show a change in the dominant regime from ITG to TEM due to the ECRH induced changes in the electron and ion temperature profiles. The impurity and electron density behavior can be fully explained by the changes in the turbulent particle transport. Momentum transport analyses demonstrate that in the TEM regime there is a core localized, counter-current directed, residual stress momentum flux of the same order of magnitude as the applied NBI torque. The initial results from momentum modulation experiments performed on AUG confirm that the Prandtl number in AUG NBI heated H-modes is close to 1 and that there exists a significant inward momentum pinch. Lastly, an intrinsic toroidal rotation database has been developed at AUG which can be used to test theoretically predicted dependences of residual stress momentum fluxes. Initial results show a linear correlation between the gradient of the toroidal rotation and both the electron density gradient scale length and the frequency of the dominant turbulent mode.

Survey of the H-mode power threshold and transition physics studies in ASDEX Upgrade

An overview of the H-mode threshold power in ASDEX Upgrade which addresses the impact of the tungsten versus graphite wall, the dependences upon plasma current and density, as well as the influence of the plasma ion mass is given. Results on the H–L back transition are also presented. Dedicated L–H transition studies with electron heating at low density, which enable a complete separation of the electron and ion channels, reveal that the ion heat flux is a key parameter in the L–H transition physics mechanism through the main ion pressure gradient which is itself the main contribution to the radial electric field and the induced flow shearing at the edge. The electron channel does not play any role. The 3D magnetic field perturbations used to mitigate the edge-localized modes are found to also influence the L–H transition and to increase the power threshold. This effect is caused by a flattening of the edge pressure gradient in the presence of the 3D fields such that the L–H transitions with and without perturbations occur at the same value of the radial electric field well, but at different heating powers.

L- to H-mode transitions at low density in ASDEX Upgrade

The results from ASDEX Upgrade discharges dedicated specifically to the investigation of low-density L-to-H transitions are presented. The plasmas were heated by electron cyclotron resonance heating to achieve a separation of electron and ion heat channels. Under such conditions, the ratio of electron to ion temperature at the plasma edge increases with decreasing density at the L–H transition and can be as high as 3.5. Our results strongly support the essential role of the ion channel in the L–H transition, via the diamagnetic Er provided by the ion pressure gradient.

Fast-ion redistribution and loss due to edge perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade, DIII-D and KSTAR tokamaks

The impact of edge localized modes (ELMs) and externally applied resonant and non-resonant magnetic perturbations (MPs) on fast-ion confinement/transport have been investigated in the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), DIII-D and KSTAR tokamaks. Two phases with respect to the ELM cycle can be clearly distinguished in ELM-induced fast-ion losses. Inter-ELM losses are characterized by a coherent modulation of the plasma density around the separatrix while intra-ELM losses appear as well-defined bursts. In high collisionality plasmas with mitigated ELMs, externally applied MPs have little effect on kinetic profiles, including fast-ions, while a strong impact on kinetic profiles is observed in low-collisionality, low q95 plasmas with resonant and non-resonant MPs. In low-collisionality H-mode plasmas, the large fast-ion filaments observed during ELMs are replaced by a loss of fast-ions with a broad-band frequency and an amplitude of up to an order of magnitude higher than the neutral beam injection prompt loss signal without MPs. A clear synergy in the overall fast-ion transport is observed between MPs and neoclassical tearing modes. Measured fast-ion losses are typically on banana orbits that explore the entire pedestal/scrape-off layer. The fast-ion response to externally applied MPs presented here may be of general interest for the community to better understand the MP field penetration and overall plasma response.

Poloidal asymmetry of parallel rotation measured in ASDEX Upgrade

The parallel flows in the H-mode edge of ASDEX Upgrade are investigated. Beam-based charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) provides the toroidal and poloidal impurity flow velocities at the outboard midplane, while a deuterium-puff based CXRS measurement provides the toroidal impurity flow velocities at the inboard midplane. In order to more easily compare these measurements to fundamental boundary conditions, a basic overview of flows on a flux surface is presented. The boundary conditions are given by the continuity equation and mean that the flow velocities on a flux surface must have a specific structure in order to provide zero divergence. At first, poloidal impurity density asymmetries and radial transport are neglected. Inside of the pedestal-top of the electron density profile the measurements agree with the postulated flow structure, while they do not agree at the pedestal itself. Here, an extension of the theoretical scheme, which allows for a poloidal impurity density asymmetry, suggests that the measured flow velocities could be explained by an excess impurity density at the inboard midplane. In detail, the inboard impurity density is postulated to be at the separatrix up to a factor of 6.5 higher than impurity density at the outboard midplane. Near the pedestal-top of the electron density, this asymmetry disappears. Radial transport is considered as an explanation for that asymmetry. A conclusive disentanglement of the driving mechanisms requires further investigation.