L. R. Baylor

Principal physics developments evaluated in the ITER design review

As part of the ITER Design Review and in response to the issues identified by the Science and Technology Advisory Committee, the ITER physics requirements were reviewed and as appropriate updated. The focus of this paper will be on recent work affecting the ITER design with special emphasis on topics affecting near-term procurement arrangements. This paper will describe results on: design sensitivity studies, poloidal field coil requirements, vertical stability, effect of toroidal field ripple on thermal confinement, material choice and heat load requirements for plasma-facing components, edge localized modes control, resistive wall mode control, disruptions and disruption mitigation.

Progress on the application of ELM control schemes to ITER scenarios from the non-active phase to DT operation

Progress in the definition of the requirements for edge localized mode (ELM) control and the application of ELM control methods both for high fusion performance DT operation and non-active low-current operation in ITER is described. Evaluation of the power fluxes for low plasma current H-modes in ITER shows that uncontrolled ELMs will not lead to damage to the tungsten (W) divertor target, unlike for high-current H-modes in which divertor damage by uncontrolled ELMs is expected. Despite the lack of divertor damage at lower currents, ELM control is found to be required in ITER under these conditions to prevent an excessive contamination of the plasma by W, which could eventually lead to an increased disruptivity. Modelling with the non-linear MHD code JOREK of the physics processes determining the flow of energy from the confined plasma onto the plasma-facing components during ELMs at the ITER scale shows that the relative contribution of conductive and convective losses is intrinsically linked to the magnitude of the ELM energy loss. Modelling of the triggering of ELMs by pellet injection for DIII-D and ITER has identified the minimum pellet size required to trigger ELMs and, from this, the required fuel throughput for the application of this technique to ITER is evaluated and shown to be compatible with the installed fuelling and tritium re-processing capabilities in ITER. The evaluation of the capabilities of the ELM control coil system in ITER for ELM suppression is carried out (in the vacuum approximation) and found to have a factor of ∼2 margin in terms of coil current to achieve its design criterion, although such a margin could be substantially reduced when plasma shielding effects are taken into account. The consequences for the spatial distribution of the power fluxes at the divertor of ELM control by three-dimensional (3D) fields are evaluated and found to lead to substantial toroidal asymmetries in zones of the divertor target away from the separatrix. Therefore, specifications for the rotation of the 3D perturbation applied for ELM control in order to avoid excessive localized erosion of the ITER divertor target are derived. It is shown that a rotation frequency in excess of 1 Hz for the whole toroidally asymmetric divertor power flux pattern is required (corresponding to n Hz frequency in the variation of currents in the coils, where n is the toroidal symmetry of the perturbation applied) in order to avoid unacceptable thermal cycling of the divertor target for the highest power fluxes and worst toroidal power flux asymmetries expected. The possible use of the in-vessel vertical stability coils for ELM control as a back-up to the main ELM control systems in ITER is described and the feasibility of its application to control ELMs in low plasma current H-modes, foreseen for initial ITER operation, is evaluated and found to be viable for plasma currents up to 5–10 MA depending on modelling assumptions.

Operation of a gated field emitter using an individual carbon nanofiber cathode

We report on the operation of an integrated gated cathode device using a single vertically aligned carbon nanofiber as the field emission element. This device is capable of operation in a moderate vacuum for extended periods of time without experiencing a degradation of performance. Less than 1% of the total emitted current is collected by the gate electrode, indicating that the emitted electron beam is highly collimated. As a consequence, this device is ideal for applications that require well-focused electron emission from a microscale structure.

Field emission from isolated individual vertically aligned carbon nanocones

Field emission from isolated individual vertically aligned carbon nanocones (VACNCs) has been measured using a small-diameter moveable probe. The probe was scanned parallel to the sample plane to locate the VACNCs, and perpendicular to the sample plane to measure the emission turn-on electric field of each VACNC. Individual VACNCs can be good field emitters. The emission threshold field depends on the geometric aspect ratio (height/tip radius) of the VACNC and is lowest when a sharp tip is present. VACNCs exposed to a reactive ion etch process demonstrate a lowered emission threshold field while maintaining a similar aspect ratio. Individual VACNCs can have low emission thresholds, carry high current densities, and have long emission lifetime. This makes them very promising for various field emission applications for which deterministic placement of the emitter with submicron accuracy is needed.

Experimental test of the neoclassical theory of impurity poloidal rotation in tokamaks

Despite the importance of rotation in fusion plasmas, our present understanding of momentum transport is inadequate. The lack of understanding is in part related to the difficulty of performing accurate rotation measurements, especially for poloidal rotation. Recently, measurements of poloidal rotation for impurity ions (Z>1) have been obtained in the core of DIII-D [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 6114 (2002)] plasmas using charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. The inferred poloidal rotation is based on careful consideration of the effective energy-dependent cross section and of the gyromotion of the ions. The rotation measurements are found to be consistent with the radial electric field determined independently from multiple impurity species as well as from motional Stark effect spectroscopic measurements. The poloidal rotation measurements have been compared with predictions based on the neoclassical theory of poloidal rotation from the code NCLASS [W. A. Houlberg et al., Phys. Plasmas 4, 3230 (19...

Improved core fueling with high field side pellet injection in the DIII-D tokamak

The capability to inject deuterium pellets from the magnetic high field side (HFS) has been added to the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)]. It is observed that pellets injected from the HFS lead to deeper mass deposition than identical pellets injected from the outside midplane, in spite of a factor of 4 lower pellet speed. HFS injected pellets have been used to generate peaked density profile plasmas [peaking factor (ne(0)/〈ne〉) in excess of 3] that develop internal transport barriers when centrally heated with neutral beam injection. The transport barriers are formed in conditions where Te∼Ti and q(0) is above unity. The peaked density profiles, characteristic of the internal transport barrier, persist for several energy confinement times. The pellets are also used to investigate transport barrier physics and modify plasma edge conditions. Transitions from L- to H-mode have been triggered by pellets, effectively lowering the H-mode threshold power by 2.4 MW. Pel...

ELM control strategies and tools: status and potential for ITER

Operating ITER in the reference inductive scenario at the design values of Ip = 15 MA and QDT = 10 requires the achievement of good H-mode confinement that relies on the presence of an edge transport barrier whose pedestal pressure height is key to plasma performance. Strong gradients occur at the edge in such conditions that can drive magnetohydrodynamic instabilities resulting in edge localized modes (ELMs), which produce a rapid energy loss from the pedestal region to the plasma facing components (PFC). Without appropriate control, the heat loads on PFCs during ELMs in ITER are expected to become significant for operation in H-mode at Ip = 6–9 MA; operation at higher plasma currents would result in a very reduced life time of the PFCs. Currently, several options are being considered for the achievement of the required level of ELM control in ITER; this includes operation in plasma regimes which naturally have no or very small ELMs, decreasing the ELM energy loss by increasing their frequency by a factor of up to 30 and avoidance of ELMs by actively controlling the edge with magnetic perturbations. Small/no ELM regimes obtained by influencing the edge stability (by plasma shaping, rotational shear control, etc) have shown in present experiments a significant reduction of the ELM heat fluxes compared to type-I ELMs. However, so far they have only been observed under a limited range of pedestal conditions depending on each specific device and their extrapolation to ITER remains uncertain. ELM control by increasing their frequency relies on the controlled triggering of the edge instability leading to the ELM. This has been presently demonstrated with the injection of pellets and with plasma vertical movements; pellets having provided the results more promising for application in ITER conditions. ELM avoidance/suppression takes advantage of the fact that relatively small changes in the pedestal plasma and magnetic field parameters seem to have a large stabilizing effect on large ELMs. Application of edge magnetic field perturbation with non-axisymmetric fields is found to affect transport at the plasma edge and thus prevent the uncontrolled rise of the plasma pressure gradients and the occurrence of type-I ELMs. This paper compiles a brief overview of various ELM control approaches, summarizes their present achievements and briefly discusses the open issues regarding their application in ITER.

Fabrication of gated cathode structures using an in situ grown vertically aligned carbon nanofiber as a field emission element

Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) are extremely promising cathode materials for microfabricated field emission devices, due to their low threshold field to initiate electron emission, inherent stability, and ruggedness, and relative ease of fabrication at moderate growth temperatures. We report on a process for fabricating gated cathode structures that uses a single in situ grown carbon nanofiber as a field emission element. The electrostatic gating structure was fabricated using a combination of traditional micro- and nanofabrication techniques. High-resolution electron beam lithography was used to define the first layer of features consisting of catalyst sites for VACNF growth and alignment marks for subsequent photolithography steps. Following metallization of these features, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was used to deposit a 1-μm-thick interlayer dielectric. Photolithography was then used to expose the gate electrode pattern consisting of 1 μm apertures aligned to the ...

Digital electrostatic electron-beam array lithography

A concept for maskless digital electrostatically focused e-beam array direct-write lithography (DEAL) has been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This concept incorporates a digitally addressable field-emission array (DAFEA) integrated into a logic and control circuit implemented as an integrated circuit. The design goal is for 3 000 000 individually addressable field-emission cathodes with a 4 μm by 8 μm pitch on a single ∼1 cm2 integrated circuit. The DAFEA design includes built-in electrostatic focusing for each emitter with feedback dose-control circuits to drive each emitter for tightly controlled electron delivery. With the electrostatic focusing, an array of ∼460 of these integrated circuits (up to 30 across by ∼23 rows deep) are suspended on a back plane ∼100 μm above a 300 mm semiconductor wafer. This arrangement could lithographically expose an entire 300 mm wafer, with 30 nm pixels, in less than 45 s, with every wafer pixel redundantly illuminated eight times allowing gray-scale edge p...

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.