K. Thomsen

Plasma confinement in JET H?mode plasmas with H, D, DT and T isotopes

The scaling of the energy confinement in H mode plasmas with different hydrogenic isotopes (hydrogen, deuterium, DT and tritium) is investigated in JET. For ELM-free H modes the thermal energy confinement time τth is found to decrease weakly with the isotope mass (τth ~M-0.25±0.22), whilst in ELMy H modes the energy confinement time shows practically no mass dependence (τth ~M0.03±0.1). Detailed local transport analysis of the ELMy H mode plasmas reveals that the confinement in the edge region increases strongly with the isotope mass, whereas the confinement in the core region decreases with mass (τthcore ∝ M-0.16), in approximate agreement with theoretical models of the gyro-Bohm type (τgB ~M-0.2).

The time behaviour of the thermal conductivity during L to H and H to L transitions in JET

The change in thermal transport across the L to H transition is studied in detail for those JET high performance H-modes which have a very fast transition. It is found that in these pulses the transport changes very rapidly (<4 msecs) over a very large radial region 0.5< rho <1, and a very large transport barrier is formed. The reasons for the formation of this barrier are discussed.

Evolution of transport through the L-H transition in JET

The evolution of the energy, momentum and particle transport through the L-H transition are determined in JET NBI heated discharges. Both normal and periodic L-H transitions are studied. It is found that all of the transport coefficients drop at the transition over a wide radial region and not just in the edge region as was previously thought to be the case. Indeed it is shown by two different modelling techniques that the conventional model in which the transport changes in a narrow region at the edge cannot explain the time behaviour of the electron temperature. Measurements of the fluctuation level by reflectometry also show a very fast drop over a wide radial region

Particle and energy transport during the first tritium experiments on JET

The particle and energy transport properties of the high fusion performance JET pulses that were obtained before and during the first tritium experiments are discussed. The particle diffusion coefficient of tritium is determined by monitoring the decay of a small quantity of injected tritium in a deuterium background plasma. A good simulation of the measured 14 MeV neutron emissivity profile is obtained throughout the decay phase if the mixing of the two species is described by a model in which the tritium diffusion coefficient is similar to that of deuterium. The energy confinement of these low density, hot ion, H mode discharges is found to have both improved central and edge confinement over the conventional medium to high density H mode discharges, regardless of the presence or absence of tritium in the discharge. As the tritium concentration of these D-T discharges is small (varying from <1% to 10%), no isotopic dependence was expected and indeed none is observed. Enhancement factors of at least twice the value predicted by H mode scaling expressions are observed but only transiently. A local transport analysis is completed to try and establish the reason for the improved confinement and its transient nature. Similarities between these pulses and DIII-D VH mode discharges have been noticed, and common characteristics are discussed. In particular, the expansion of the region with access to the second stability regime certainly appears to be a possibility for the enhanced confinement. The stabilization of the ηi mode by the peaked density profile seems unlikely to be the cause of the improved confinement. Finally, for the discharge with a high concentration of tritium, it has been suggested that alpha particle driven instabilities could affect the energy confinement. A comparison is made with tile stability threshold of toroidicity induced Alfven eigenmodes (TAE), which appear to have been stable. The alpha particle statistics are also presented

High fusion power steady state operation in JET DT plasmas

Because of its large size, single null divertor and flexible magnetic geometry, JET is capable of producing the most reactor relevant plasmas of any present generation tokamak. In recent DT experiments, the fusion performance of these plasmas was tested for the first time. Over 4 MW of fusion power was produced in a high power, steady state pulse of 5 s, limited by the duration of the heating power. The fusion QE, defined simply as the fusion energy produced divided by the input energy over this 5 s interval, was 0.18. These DT ELMy H mode discharges performed up to expectations based on DD preparation pulses and thus establish a firm basis for extrapolating to a next step machine. Operation at low q95 is possible in JET with no degradation in the confinement enhancement factor and provides an improved margin to ignition when extrapolated to ITER. Considerable uncertainties remain, nonetheless. In particular, access to high density, relative to the Greenwald limit, and operation in close proximity to the H mode threshold may both result in a degradation of the confinement in the next step machine.

High temperature L- and H-mode confinement in JET

The energy confinement properties of low density, high ion temperature L- and H-mode plasmas are investigated. For L-mode plasmas it is shown that, although the global confinement is independent of density, the energy confinement in the central region is significantly better at low densities than at higher densities. The improved confinement appears to be associated with the steepness of the density gradient. For the H-mode phase, although the confinement at the edge is dramatically improved, which is once again associated with the steep density gradient in the edge region, the central confinement properties are essentially the same as for the standard L-mode. The results are compared in a qualitative manner with the predictions of the ion temperature gradient instability theory and appear to be in disagreement with some aspects of this theory.

Edge localized modes and edge pedestal in NBI and ICRF heated H, D and T plasmas in JET

On the basis of experiments carried out in JET in D:T mixtures varying from 100:0 to 5:95 and those carried out in hydrogen plasmas, the isotopic mass dependence of ELM parameters and the edge pedestal pressure in NBI and ICRF heated H mode plasmas is presented. The ELM frequency is found to decrease with the atomic mass number in both ICRH and NBI discharges. However, the frequency in the case of ICRH is about 8-10 times higher than that in the case of NBI. Assuming that ELMs occur at a critical edge pressure gradient, limited by the ballooning instability, the scaling of the maximum edge pressure is most consistent with the assumption that the width of the transport barrier scales as the ion poloidal Larmor radius governed by the average energy of fast ions at the edge. The critical edge pressure in NBI heated discharges increases with the isotopic mass, which is consistent with the higher deduced width of the edge transport barrier in tritium than those in deuterium and hydrogen. The critical edge pressure in ICRH discharges is smaller, presumably, due to the smaller fast ion contribution to the edge region. As a consequence of the edge pressure scaling with isotopic mass, the edge operational space in an ne-Te diagram increases with operation in tritium. If the evidence that the edge pedestal width is governed by the average energy of fast ions in the edge prevails, the pedestal in ITER would be controlled by the slowing down energy spectrum of alpha particles in the edge.

Dependence of L mode confinement on plasma ion species in JET

The properties of JET plasmas obtained under similar L mode conditions, but using different ion species, are compared. In hydrogenic limiter discharges with NBI heating, particle confinement and sawtooth activity display a clear isotopic dependence. However, the gain in global energy confinement from hydrogen to deuterium is less pronounced than that implied by popular L mode scaling relationships and the improvement appears to be only partly due to a reduction in the local conductive heat flux. No significant change in energy or particle confinement is observed when deuterium is replaced by 3He

Confinement of high-current steady-state ELMy H-modes with the JET Mark II divertor

The energy confinement time of high-current ELMy H-modes in JET is found to be lower than predicted by the scaling. An unprovoked transition to L-mode is often observed in ELMy H-modes without additional deuterium gas fuelling. This spontaneous H-L transition can be avoided by keeping the input power well above the L-H threshold power. The transition is analysed both in terms of global and local parameters.

Global and local conditions for the L-H and H-L transitions on JET

An analysis of the complete JET D-D threshold database, from 1990 to 1997 inclusive is presented. A JET scaling is derived for the threshold power through the separatrix, estimated by considering also radiation losses from the bulk plasma. Such scalings are applied to obtain a first qualitative estimate of the amount of power above threshold that is needed to obtain steady-state high confinement (H89 > 1.8). The L-H and H-L transitions are also analysed in terms of local edge parameters. The first results on isotope scaling of the H-mode power threshold in D-T and T-T plasmas are also presented, confirming the scaling.