K. Bol

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.

Impurity levels and power loading in the pdx tokamak with high power neutral beam injection

Abstract The PDX tokamak provides an experimental facility for the direct comparison of various impurity control techniques under reactor-like conditions. Four neutral beam lines inject > 6 MW for 300 ms. Carbon rail limiter discharges have been used to test the effectiveness of perpendicular injection, but non-disruptive full power operation for > 100 ms is difficult without extensive conditioning. Initial tests of a toroidal bumper limiter indicate reduced power loading and roughly similar impurity levels compared to the carbon rail limiter discharges. Poloidal divertor discharges with up to 5 MW of injected power are cleaner than similar circular discharges, and the power is deposited in a remote divertor chamber. High density divertor operation indicates a reduction of impurity flow velocity in the divertor and enhanced recycling in the divertor region during neutral injection.

Initial results from the scoop limiter experiment in PDX

Abstract A particle scoop limiter with a graphite face backed by a 50 liter volume for collecting particles was used in PDX. Experiments were performed to test its particle control and power handling capabilities with up to 5 MW of D° power injected into D+ plasmas. Line average plasma densities of up to 8 × 1013 cm−3 and currents up to 450 kA were obtained. Plasma densities in the scoop channels greater than 2 × 1013 cm−3 and neutral densities in the scoop volume greater than 5 × 1014 cm−3 were observed. There is evidence that recycling may have occurred in the scoop channels for several discharges with large line-averaged plasma density. At beam powers up to 2.5 MW, energy confinement times above 40 ms were deduced from magnetics measurements and from transport analysis. Pressures in the vacuum vessel were in the 10 −5 Torr range, and recycling source neutral densities in the central plasma were low.

The effect of current profile evolution on plasma-limiter interaction and the energy confinement time

Experiments conducted on the PLT tokamak have shown that both plasma-limiter interaction and the gross energy confinement time are functions of the gas influx during the discharge. By suitably controlling the gas influx, it is possible to contract the current channel, decrease impurity radiation from the core of the discharge, and increase the gross energy confinement time, whether the aperture limiters are of tungsten, stainless steel or carbon.

Thermal energy confinement scaling in PDX limiter discharges

Experiments were performed on the PDX tokamak to study plasma heating and beta scaling with high-power, near-perpendicular neutral-beam injection. The data taken during these experiments were analysed, using a time-dependent data interpretation code (TRANSP), to study the transport and thermal confinement scaling over a wide range of plasma parameters. This study focuses on results from experiments with D0 injection into H+ plasmas using graphite rail limiters, a = 40–44 cm, R = 143 cm, Ip= 200–480 kA, BT = 0.7–2.2 T, and, typically, e = (2.5–4.2) X 1013cm−3. The results of this study indicate that for both Ohmic and neutral-beam-heated discharges the energy flow out of the plasma is dominated by anomalous electron losses which are attributed to electron thermal conduction. The ion conduction losses are not inconsistent with neoclassical theory; however, the total ion loss influences the power balance significantly only at high toroidal fields and high plasma currents. Therefore, except for these cases, the total thermal energy confinement time for the neutral-beam-heated discharges follows the scaling of electron energy confinement. While the confinement is found to have little dependence on toroidal field, it is a strong function of plasma current, increasing with increasing Ip. In contrast, Ohmic confinement times are found to scale as eq½. Because of the dominant effect of the electrons, the total confinement is found to depend heavily on the variation of the electron thermal diffusivity, χe, in the outer region of the plasma (a/2 ≤ r ≤ 7a/8). The values of χe in this region of the plasma show an approximately inverse dependence on the local value of the poloidal magnetic field.

Particle fueling and impurity control in PDX

Abstract Fueling requirements and impurity levels in neutral-beam-heated discharges in the PDX tokamak have been compared for plasmas formed with conventional graphite rail limiters, a particle scoop limiter, and an open or closed poloidal divertor. Gas flows necessary to obtain a given density are highest for diverted discharges and lowest for the scoop limiter. Hydrogen pellet injection provides an efficient alternative fueling technique, and a multiple pellet injector has produced high density discharges for an absorbed neutral beam power of up to 600 kW, above which higher speeds or more massive pellets are required for penetration to the plasma core. Power balance studies indicate that 30–40% of the total input power is radiated while ~15% is absorbed by the limiting surface, except in the open divertor case, where 60% flows to the neutralizer plate. In all operating configurations, Z eff usually rises at the onset of neutral beam injection. Both open divertor pl;asmas and those formed on a well conditioned water-cooled limiter have Z eff ⪅ 2 at the end of neutral injection. A definitive comparison of divertors and limiters for impurity control purposes requires longer beam pulses or higher power levels than available on present machines.

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).

Volt-second consumption during the start-up phase of PLT

The volt-second consumption in the PLT tokamak was measured. During the start-up phase, the volt-second consumption is determined primarily by the external and internal flux required to establish the current profile. The resistive volt-second loss on axis is typically < l/4 of the total volt-seconds consumed during the first 180 ms of the discharge. The measurements reported here provide an empirical basis for establishing the volt-second requirements for future tokamak devices.

Experimental determination of vertical instability strength in PDX tokamak

The instability strength of a diverted plasma with vertical elongation is measured for a range of the magnetic-field decay index, −1.5 < n < +0.5, in the standard-D and inverted-D configurations. The range of the instability growth time is from one to four orders of magnitude greater than previously published results. When the plasma current is in the range of 170–310 kA, the instability can be suppressed by passive stabilization due to currents induced in a discrete coil system together with a moderate-power (100 kW) active feedback system. The inverted-D configuration is three times more unstable than the standard-D configuration for the same ellipticity. The inverted-D configuration is destabilized by its negative triangularity and the standard-D is stabilized by its positive triangularity.

The Poloidal Divertor Experiment(PDX) and the Princeton Beta Experiment(PBX)

A review of high-power neutral-beam heating, impurity studies, and high-beta research on the PDX/PBX tokamak is presented.