K. Saito

Configuration flexibility and extended regimes in Large Helical Device

Recent experimental results in the Large Helical Device have indicated that a large pressure gradient can be formed beyond the stability criterion for the Mercier (high-n) mode. While the stability against an interchange mode is violated in the inward-shifted configuration due to an enhancement of the magnetic hill, the neoclassical transport and confinement of high-energy particle are, in contrast, improved by this inward shift. Mitigation of the unfavourable effects of MHD instability has led to a significant extension of the operational regime. Achievements of the stored energy of I MJ and the volume-averaged beta of 3% are representative results from this finding. A confinement enhancement factor above the international stellarator scaling ISS95 is also maintained around 1.5 towards a volume-averaged beta, (beta), of 3%. Configuration studies on confinement and MHD characteristics emphasize the superiority of the inward-shifted geometry to other geometries. The emergence of coherent modes appears to be consistent with the linear ideal MHD theory; however, the inward-shifted configuration has reduced heat transport in spite of a larger amplitude of magnetic fluctuation than the outward-shifted configuration. While neoclassical helical ripple transport becomes visible for the outward-shifted configuration in the collisionless regime, the inward-shifted configuration does not show any degradation of confinement deep in the collisionless regime (nu* < 0.1). The distinguished characteristics observed in the inward-shifted configuration help in creating a new perspective of MHD stability and related transport in net current-free plasmas. The first result of the pellet launching at different locations is also reported.

Energy confinement and thermal transport characteristics of net current free plasmas in the Large Helical Device

The energy confinement and thermal transport characteristics of net current free plasmas in regimes with much smaller gyroradii and collisionality than previously studied have been investigated in the Large Helical Device (LHD). The inward shifted configuration, which is superior from the point of view of neoclassical transport theory, has revealed a systematic confinement improvement over the standard configuration. Energy confinement times are improved over the International Stellarator Scaling 95 by a factor of 1.6 ± 0.2 for an inward shifted configuration. This enhancement is primarily due to the broad temperature profile with a high edge value. A simple dimensional analysis involving LHD and other medium sized heliotrons yields a strongly gyro-Bohm dependence (T E Ω ρ *-3.8 ) of energy confinement times. It should be noted that this result is attributed to a comprehensive treatment of LHD for systematic confinement enhancement and that the medium sized heliotrons have narrow temperature profiles. The core stored energy still indicates a dependence of T E Ω ρ *-2.6 when data only from LIED are processed. The local heat transport analysis of discharges dimensionally similar except for ρ * suggests that the heat conduction coefficient lies between Bohm and gyro-Bohm in the core and changes towards strong gyro-Bohm in the peripheral region. Since the inward shifted configuration has a geometrical feature suppressing neoclassical transport, confinement improvement can be maintained in the collisionless regime where ripple transport is important. The stiffness of the pressure profile coincides with enhanced transport in the peaked density profile obtained by pellet injection.

MHD characteristics in the high beta regime of the Large Helical Device

Note: Proc. 18th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Sorrento, Italy, 4-10 October 2000, IAEA-CN-77 (EXP3/12), p. 157 (2000) Reference CRPP-CONF-2000-073 Record created on 2008-05-13, modified on 2017-05-12

Impact of pellet injection on extension of the operational region in LHD

Pellet injection has been used as a primary fuelling scheme in the Large Helical Device. With pellet injection, the operational region of NBI plasmas has been extended to higher densities while maintaining a favourable dependence of energy confinement on density, and several important values, such as plasma stored energy of 0.88?MJ, energy confinement time of 0.3?s, ? of 2.4% at 1.3?T and density of 1.1 ? 1020?m -3, have been achieved. These parameters cannot be attained by gas puffing. Ablation and the subsequent behaviour of the plasma have been investigated. The measured pellet penetration depth estimated on the basis of the duration of the H? emission is shallower than the depth predicted from the simple neutral gas shielding (NGS) model. It can be explained by the NGS model with inclusion of the effect of fast ions on the ablation. Just after ablation, the redistribution of the ablated pellet mass was observed on a short timescale (~400?ms). The redistribution causes shallow deposition and low fuelling efficiency.

Steady-state operation and high energy particle production of MeV energy in the Large Helical Device

Achieving steady-state plasma operation at high plasma temperatures is one of the important goals of worldwide magnetic fusion research. High temperatures of approximately 1?2?keV, and steady-state plasma sustainment operations have been reported. Recently the steady-state operation regime was greatly extended in the Large Helical Device (LHD). A high-temperature plasma was created and maintained for 54?min with 1.6?GJ in the 2005FY experimental programme. The three-dimensional heat-deposition profile of the LHD helical divertor was modified, and during long-pulse discharges it effectively dispersed the heat load using a magnetic axis swing technique developed at the LHD. A sweep of only 3?cm in the major radius of the magnetic axis position (less than 1% of the major radius of the LHD) was enough to disperse the divertor heat load. The steady-state plasma was heated and sustained mainly by hydrogen minority ion heating using ion cyclotron range of frequencies and partially by electron cyclotron of fundamental resonance frequency. By accumulating the small flux of charge-exchanged neutral particles during the long-pulse operation, a high energy ion tail which extended up to 1.6?MeV was observed. This is the first experimental evidence of high energetic ion confinement of MeV range in helical devices. The long-pulse operations lasted until a sudden increase in radiation loss occurred, presumably because of metal wall flakes dropping into the plasma. The sustained line-averaged electron density and temperature were approximately 0.8 ? 1019?m?3 and 2?keV, respectively, at a 1.3?GJ discharge (#53776) and 0.4 ? 1019?m?3 and 1?keV at a 1.6?GJ discharge (#66053). The average input power was 680?kW and 490?kW, and the plasma duration was 32?min and 54?min, respectively. These successful long operations show that the heliotron configuration has a high potential as a steady-state fusion reactor.

MHD instabilities and their effects on plasma confinement in Large Helical Device plasmas

Characteristics of MHD instabilities and their impacts on plasma confinement are studied in current free plasmas of the Large Helical Device. Spontaneous L?H transition is often observed in high beta plasmas close to 2% at low toroidal fields (Bt ? 0.75?T). The stored energy starts to rise rapidly just after the transition accompanying the clear rise in the electron density but quickly saturates due to the growth of the m = 2/n = 3 mode (m and n: poloidal and toroidal mode numbers), the rational surface of which is located in the edge barrier region, and edge localized mode (ELM) like activities having fairly small amplitude but high repetition frequency. Even in low beta plasmas without L?H transitions, ELM-like activities are sometimes induced in high performance plasmas with a steep edge pressure gradient and transiently reduce the stored energy up to 10%. Energetic ion driven MHD modes such as Alfv?n eigenmodes (AEs) are studied in a very wide range of characteristic parameters (the averaged beta of energetic ions, ?b?, and the ratio of energetic ion velocity to the Alfv?n velocity, Vb?/VA), of which range includes all tokamak data. In addition to the observation of toroidicity induced AEs (TAEs), coherent magnetic fluctuations of helicity induced AEs (HAEs) have been detected for the first time in NBI heated plasmas. The transition of a core-localized TAE to a global AE (GAE) is also observed in a discharge with temporal evolution of the rotational transform profile, having a similarity to the phenomenon observed in a reversed shear tokamak. At low magnetic fields, bursting TAEs transiently induce a significant loss of energetic ions, up to 40% of injected beams, but on the other hand play an important role in triggering the formation of transport barriers in the core and edge regions.

Ion and electron heating in ICRF heating experiments on LHD

The ICRF heating experiments conducted in 1999 in the third experimental campaign on LHD are reported, with an emphasis on the optimization of the heating regime. Specifically, an exhaustive study of seven different heating regimes was carried out by changing the radiofrequency relative to the magnetic field intensity, and the dependence of the heating efficiency on H minority concentration was investigated. It was found in the experiment that both ion and electron heating are attainable with the same experimental set-up by properly choosing the frequency relative to the magnetic field intensity. In the cases of both electron heating and ion heating, the power absorption efficiency depends on the minority ion concentration. An optimum minority concentration exists in the ion heating case while, in the electron heating case, the efficiency increases with concentration monotonically. A simple model calculation is introduced to provide a heuristic understanding of these experimental results. Among the heating regimes examined in this experiment, one of the ion heating regimes was finally chosen as the optimized heating regime and various high performance discharges were realized with it.

A study of high-energy ions produced by ICRF heating in LHD

This paper reports on the behaviour of high-energy ions created by ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating on the Large Helical Device (LHD). In the third experimental campaign conducted in 1999, it was found that minority heating has good heating performance, and high-energy particles were observed. In the fourth campaign in 2000, the temporal behaviour of high-energy ions was investigated in the minority heating regime using turnoff or modulation of ICRF power. The time evolution of the high-energy particle distribution was measured using a natural diamond detector (NDD) and a time-of-flight neutral particle analyser (TOF-NPA). It was found that the count number of higher-energy particles declines faster than that of lower-energy particles after ICRF turnoff. In the modulation experiments, the phase difference of the flux of high-energy particles with respect to the ICRF power modulation increased with energy. These results were explained qualitatively by the Fokker-Planck equation with a simple model. The pitch-angle dependence of the distribution function was also measured in the experiment by changing the line of sight of the TOF-NPA, and an anisotropy of the high-energy tail was found. This anisotropy was reproduced by solving the bounce-averaged Fokker-Planck equation. The second harmonic heating was conducted successfully for the first time in the LHD in high-β plasma, and high-energy particles were also detected in this heating regime.

Characteristics of transport in electron internal transport barriers and in the vicinity of rational surfaces in the Large Helical Device

Characteristics of transport in electron internal transport barriers (ITB) and in the vicinity of a rational surface with a magnetic island are studied with transient transport analysis as well as with steady state transport analysis. Associated with the transition of the radial electric field from a small negative value (ion-root) to a large positive value (electron-root), an electron ITB appears in the Large Helical Device [M. Fujiwara et al., Nucl. Fusion 41, 1355 (2001)], when the heating power of the electron cyclotron heating exceeds a power threshold. Transport analysis shows that both the standard electron thermal diffusivity, χe, and the incremental electron thermal diffusivity, χeinc (the derivative of normalized heat flux to temperature gradient, equivalent to heat pulse χe), are reduced significantly (a factor 5–10) in the ITB. The χeinc is much lower than the χe by a factor of 3 just after the transition, while χeinc is comparable to or even higher than χe before the transition, which results...

Steady-state operation using a dipole mode ion cyclotron heating antenna and 77 GHz electron cyclotron heating in the Large Helical Device

The steady-state operation of high-performance plasmas in the Large Helical Device (LHD) has progressed since the 2010 IAEA Conference in Korea by means of a newly installed ion cyclotron heating (ICH) antenna (HAS antenna) and an improved electron cyclotron heating (ECH) system. The HAS antenna can control the launched parallel wave number and heat the core plasma efficiently in the case of dipole mode operation. Understanding of the physics and technology of wave heating, particle and heat flow balances, and plasma?wall interactions in LHD has also improved. The heating power of steady-state ICH and ECH exceeded 1?MW and 500?kW, respectively, and a higher density helium plasma with minority hydrogen ions was maintained using the HAS antenna and new 77?GHz gyrotrons. As a result, plasma performance improved, e.g. electron temperature of more than 2?keV at a density of more than 2???1019?m?3 became possible for more than 1?min. Heat flow balance and particle flux balance of steady-state operation were evaluated. Particle balance analysis indicated that externally fed helium and hydrogen particles were mainly absorbed by the chamber wall and divertor plates, even after the 54?min operation.