H.P. Eubank

Attainment of high confinement in neutral beam heated divertor discharges in the PDX tokamak

Abstract The PDX divertor configuration has recently been converted from an open to a closed geometry to inhibit the return of neutral gas from the divertor region to the main chamber. Since then, operation in a regime with high energy confinement in neutral beam heated discharges (ASDEX H-mode) has been routine over a wide range of operating conditions. These H-mode discharges are characterized by a sudden drop in divertor density and H α emission and a spontaneous rise in main chamber plasma density during neutral beam injection. The confinement time is found to scale nearly linearly with plasma current, but can be degraded due either to the presence of edge instabilities or heavy gas puffing. Detailed Thomson scattering temperature profiles show high values of T c near the plasma edge (∼ 450 eV) with sharp radial gradients (∼ 400 eV/cm) near the separatrix. Density profiles are broad and also exhibit steep gradients close to the separatrix.

Thermal X-ray spectra and impurities in the ST Tokamak

A study is made of the spectral distribution of the soft X-ray emission produced by the thermal part of the electron velocity distribution in the ST Tokamak. The slopes of the spectra are in good agreement with the prediction from laser measurement of electron temperature if radial profile effects are taken into account. The absolute intensity is a factor 5 to 100 larger than is expected for hydrogen bremsstrahlung. This enhancement can be quantitatively accounted for by recombination radiation from oxygen and heavy-metal impurities. The enhancement factor ζ was measured at different radii, in order to study the impurity distribution in the tokamak. These, as well as other experiments, in which high-Z gases (Xe, Kr, A) were pulsed into the discharge, indicated that, within the measuring accuracy, Zeff does not vary substantially with radius.

Toroidal plasma rotation in the PLT tokamak with neutral-beam injection

Toroidal plasma rotation in the Princeton Large Torus, PLT, has been measured for various plasma and neutral-beam injection conditions. Measurements of the plasma rotational velocities were made from Doppler shifts of appropriate spectra lines and include data from both hydrogen and deuterium beams and co- and counter-injection at several electron densities. Without injection, a small but consistent toroidal rotation exists in a direction opposite to the plasma current (counter-direction) in the plasma centre but parallel to the current (co-direction) in the plasma periphery. Using these velocities measured in the absence of injection, and the plasma density and temperature gradients, radial electron fields can be determined from theory, giving Er ≈ 40 V · cm−1 in the plasma centre and Er ≈ 10 V · cm−1 near the plasma edge. Insertion of a local, 2.5% magnetic well produced no observable effect on the beam-driven rotation. Modelling of the time evolution and radial distribution of the rotation allows one to deduce an effective momentum diffusivity of the order of (1–5) × 104 cm2 · s−1.

Fusion neutron production during deuterium neutral-beam injection into the PLT tokamak

Fusion neutron emission of 1.5 × 1014 neutrons s−1 and 2 × 1013 neutrons/pulse has been observed for PLT deuterium discharges with up to 2.5 MW of deuterium neutral-beam injection. The neutron time evolution and magnitude are consistent with theoretical calculations of the fusion reactions caused by energetic injected ions which are confined and slow down classically. The factor-of-two accuracy in the absolute neutron calibration is the major uncertainty in the comparison with theory. Neutron sawtooth oscillations ( 3%) are observed which can also be explained classically.

Plasma-material interactions in TFTR

This paper presents a summary of plasma-material interactions which influence the operation of TFTR with high current (≤ 2.2 MA) ohmically heated, and high-power (∼ 10 MW) neutral-beam heated plasmas. The conditioning procedures which are applied routinely to the first-wall hardware are reviewed. Fueling characteristics during gas, pellet, and neutral-beam fueling are described. Recycling coefficients near unity are observed for most gas fueled discharges. Gas fueled discharges after helium discharge conditioning of the toroidal bumper limiter, and discharges fueled by neutral beams and pellets, show R<1. In the vicinity of the gas fueled density limit (at ne = 5–6 × 1019 m−3) values of Zeff are ≦1.5. Increases in Zeff of ≦1 have been observed with neutral beam heating of 10 MW. The primary low Z impurity is carbon with concentrations decreasing from ∼10% to <1% with increasing ne. Oxygen densities tend to increase with ne, and at the ohmic plasma density limit oxygen and carbon concentrations are comparable. Chromium getter experiments and He2+/D+ plasma comparisons indicate that the limiter is the primary source of carbon and that the vessel wall is a significant source of the oxygen impurity. Metallic impurities, consisting of the vacuum vessel metals (Ni, Fe, Cr) have significant (∼10−4 ne) concentrations only at low plasma densities (ne <1019 m−3). The primary source of metallic impurities is most likely ion sputtering from metals deposited on the carbon limiter surface.

The ontogeny of a Tokamak discharge

A detailed description of the time behaviour of a hydrogen discharge in the ST-Tokamak is based on measured radial electron temperature and density profiles at 12 different times, together with measurements of the Ohmic-heating current and voltage, the temporal, spatial, and spectral distributions of hydrogen light, the ion temperatures, and impurity concentrations. Early in the discharge the electron temperature profiles show evidence of a skin effect that develops on a time-scale of several milliseconds into a peaked profile of about 2.2 keV maximum. Thereafter the peak temperature stops growing and develops into a flat plateau, the width of which appears to be determined by the Kruskal-Shafranov limit. The average particle confinement time scales with , and reaches a maximum of 13-14 ms. The power balance is dominated by electron loss and re-cycling, rather than ion loss or radiation. The recycling process at the aperture limiter appears to involve sufficiently energetic neutral atoms to provide a fairly flat radial source function for particles, and hence to influence directly the development of the radial distribution of power input and energy balance.

Plasma density measurements with atomic beams

A method is described for the measurement of plasma ion density which relies upon the attenuation of a medium energy atomic beam. For beam energies of a few keV, resonant charge transfer with plasma ions predominates so strongly over competing processes leading to beam attenuation that the determination of ion density is particularly simple. We have employed a 2.5—5-keV atomic hydrogen beam to measure the proton densities produced by a pulsed plasma gun and by the B-l stellarator. In the latter case a 4-mm microwave interferometer was used to confirm the calculated calibration. The time response of the system is of the order of 1 MHz for density changes ≥ 1013/cm3. The method appears particularly well suited for ion densities of order 1014/cm3 where microwave measurements are difficult.

Threshold Electric Field for Excitation of Parametric Instabilities in Inhomogeneous Plasmas

Experimental observation of the threshold power required for excitation of the parametric instability is found to be in reasonably good agreement with the theory for inhomogeneous plasmas, and exceeds the threshold for a uniform plasma by an order of magnitude.

Radiation losses in PLT during neutral-beam and ICRF heating experiments

Radiation and charge-exchange losses in the PLT tokamak are compared for discharges with Ohmic heating only (OH), and with additional heating by neutral beams (NB) or RF in the ion cyclotron frequency range (ICRF). Spectroscopic, bolometric and soft-X-ray diagnostics were used. The effects of discharge cleaning, vacuum wall gettering, and rate of gas inlet on radiation losses from OH plasmas and the correlation between radiation from plasma core and edge temperatures are discussed. – For discharges with neutral-beam injection the radiation dependence on type of injection (e.g. co-injection versus counter- and co- plus counter-injection) was investigated. Radial profiles of radiation loss were compared with profiles of power deposition. Although total radiation was in the range of 30–60% of total input power into relatively clean plasma, nevertheless only 10–20% of the total central input power to ions and electrons was radiated from the plasma core. The radiated power was increased mainly by increased influx of impurities, however, a fraction of this radiation was due to the change in charge-state distribution associated with charge-exchange recombination. – During ICRF heating radiation losses were higher than or comparable to those experienced during co- plus counter-injection at similar power levels. At these low power levels of ICRF heating the total radiated power was ~ 80% of auxiliary-heating power. Radiation losses changed somewhat less rapidly than linearly with ICRF power input up to the maximum available at the time of these measurements (0.65 MW).

High-power neutral-beam heating in the adiabatic toroidal compressor

Neutral-beam injection experiments on ATC have resulted in net power deposited in the plasma of up to 230 kW. The power deposited in the plasma ions is large compared to that from ohmic heating. For a variety of beam and plasma ion species, the increase in ion temperature is proportional to beam power.