M. Dreval

Retarding field energy analyzer for the Saskatchewan Torus–Modified plasma boundary

The retarding field energy analyzer (RFA) is a simple and reliable diagnostic technique to measure the ion temperature in the scrape-off layer and edge of magnetic fusion devices. Design and operation features of a single-sided (facing the ion flow) RFA for ion temperature measurements in the Saskatchewan Torus-Modified (STOR-M) tokamak are described. Its compact size (21 x 15 x 20 mm3) allows RFA measurements without perturbing plasma significantly. Both ion and electron temperature have been measured by RFA in the STOR-M tokamak. A method is proposed to correct the effects of ion flow on the ion temperature using the simultaneously measured Mach number. The measured electron temperature is consistent with the previously reported Langmuir probe data. Abnormal behavior of the RFA has been observed in both ion and electron modes when RFA is inserted deep into the plasma.

Simultaneous evolution of plasma rotation, radial electric field, MHD activity and plasma confinement in the STOR-M tokamak

Radial electric field shear and poloidal plasma rotation are important factors affecting transport and confinement in tokamaks. Alteration of the electric field and plasma rotation in the vicinity of magnetic islands is also an important factor in tokamak plasma confinement. In the STOR-M tokamak, fast (~1 ms) simultaneous alterations of the radial electric field, plasma rotation (M|| = 0–0.4 in the plasma current direction), floating potential fluctuations in the periphery and MHD activity generated by rotating islands have been observed experimentally during normal ohmic discharges. The observed time and magnitude of the changes depend on the average electron density and poloidal beta at the beginning of the discharge. In discharges with high initial poloidal beta these changes are accompanied by a reduction in Hα emission and an increase in the line averaged density. Drastic decreases in Hα and increases in line averaged electron density and estimation of poloidal beta suggest that STOR-M confinement is significantly affected in ohmic discharges without an external additional energy input or biasing. MHD activity in STOR-M is damped when a negative electric field is observed at the limiter region of the plasma edge. MHD frequency is observed to decrease with the negative electric field.

Effects of compact torus injection on toroidal flow in the STOR-M tokamak

In compact torus injection (CTI) experiments on the STOR-M tokamak, an ion Doppler spectrometer is installed to observe the effects of CTI on toroidal plasma flows. The intrinsic toroidal flow in ohmic discharges without CTI is sheared with counter plasma current flow in the core region and co-current direction at the periphery. With tangential CTI along the co-current direction, the flow velocity in the core region decreases by more than 5 km s−1, while in the periphery the flow velocity increases by 3–4 km s−1. These data indicate that the observed flow change is due to the injection of toroidal momentum. Density increase and high soft x-ray emission after CTI are observed during the changes in the toroidal flow.

Design and initial operation of multichord soft x-ray detection arrays on the STOR-M tokamak

Two miniature pinhole camera arrays for spatially and temporally resolved measurements of soft x-ray emission have been designed and installed on the STOR-M tokamak. Each array consists of a photodiode array, with one array viewing vertically and one viewing horizontally through a plasma cross section. Preamplifiers with fixed gains of 10(5) VA and custom built amplifiers with variable gains are used for signal amplification. Digitizers with 14 bit resolution and 3 MSs sampling rate are used for data acquisition. In the initial operation, an Al foil with a thickness of 1.8 microm installed for one array and Be filter of 7.6 microm installed for the other array are used to test signal strength. Initial tests have identified sawtooth oscillations and 20 kHz fluctuations, which are also detected by Mirnov coils, superimposed on the sawtooth oscillations.

Diamagnetic measurements in the STOR-M tokamak by a flux loop system exterior to the vacuum vessel

Diamagnetic measurements of poloidal beta have been performed in the STOR-M tokamak by a flux loop placed exterior to the vacuum chamber with compensation for the vacuum toroidal field using a nonenclosing coplanar coil, and vibrational compensation from auxiliary coils. It was found that in STOR-M conditions (20% toroidal magnetic field decay over discharge) there is significant influence on the diamagnetic flux measurements from strong residual signals, presumably from image currents being induced by the toroidal field coils, requiring further compensation. A blank (nonplasma) shot is used specifically to eliminate the residual component which is not proportional to the toroidal magnetic field. Data from normal Ohmic discharge operation is presented and calculations of poloidal beta from coil data (beta(theta) approximately 0.5) is found to be in reasonable agreement with the values of poloidal beta obtained from measurements of electron density and Spitzer temperature with neoclassical corrections for trapped electrons. Contributions present in the blank shot (residual) signal and the limitations of this method are discussed.

Plasma current start-up by the outer ohmic heating coils in the Saskatchewan TORus Modified (STOR-M) iron core tokamak

A plasma current up to 15 kA has been driven with outer ohmic heating (OH) coils in the STOR-M iron core tokamak. Even when the inner OH coil is disconnected, the outer OH coils alone can induce the plasma current as primary windings and initial breakdown are even easier in this coil layout. This result suggests a possibility to use an iron core in a spherical tokamak to start up the plasma current without a central solenoid. The effect of the iron core saturation on the extension of the discharge pulse length has been estimated for further experiments in the STOR-M tokamak.

Recent Results from the STOR‐M Tokamak

This paper reports on two recent experiments carried out on the STOR‐M tokamak. The first experiment studied the nature of MHD activities based on singular value decomposition algorithm during the improved confinement phase induced by compact torus injection. The typical MHD modes with mode numbers m = 2, 3, and 4 are suppressed during the improved confinement phase. Shortly before the termination of the improved confinement phase, MHD activities reemerge, starting with a gong‐mode‐like burst followed by oscillations of a rotating m = 2. The second experiment was successful current start‐up with a simulated spherical tokamak configuration where the inner Ohmic heating coils surrounding the iron core are deactivated in STOR‐M. Current start‐up was also achieved with all the vertical equilibrium field coils deactivated. In the latter case, the vertical equilibrium field was provided solely by the image vertical field produced by the magnetization current in the iron core and compensated for by the current t...

Momentum injection and repetitive CT operation experiments

Compact torus (CT) injection as a fuelling technology was proposed by Parks (1) and has been identified as the only fuelling technology that is able to directly fuel the core of the magnetic confinement fusion reactors, such as tokamaks (2). CT fuelling has several advantages including flexible control of the fuel deposition location to optimize the density profile that is best for high fraction of bootstrap current and injection of momentum to create and maintain toroidal flow in the reactor when it is injected tangentially along the toroidal direction. Toroidal flow is an important ingredient for suppression of resistive wall mode and avoidance of locked mode which may disrupt the discharge. The first disruption-free CT injection experiment was demonstrated on the TdeV tokamak (3) and followed by the injection experiments on STOR-M which triggered improved confinement (4). This paper will focus on two recent experiments carried out using the University of Saskatchewan Compact Torus Injector (USCTI). The first experiment concerns momentum injection into the STOR-M discharge and the second one is the bench test of the repetitive CT operation up to 10Hz.

Plasma confinement modification and convective transport suppression in the scrape-off layer using additional gas puffing in the STOR-M tokamak

The influence of short gas puffing (GP) pulses on the scrape-off layer (SOL) transport is studied. Similar responses of ion saturation current and floating potential measured near the GP injection valve and in the 90° toroidally separated cross-section suggest that the GP influence on the SOL region should be global. A drop in plasma temperature and a decrease in the rotational velocity of the plasma are observed in the SOL region immediately after the GP pulse; however, an unexpected increase in electron and ion temperatures is observed in the second stage of the plasma response. The decrease in floating potential fluctuations indicates that the turbulent transport is dumped immediately after the GP pulse. The GP-induced modification of turbulence properties in the SOL points to a convective transport suppression in the STOR-M tokamak. A substantial decrease in the skewness and kurtosis of ion saturation current fluctuations is observed in the SOL region resulting in the probability distribution function (PDF) getting closer to the Gaussian distribution. The plasma potential reduction, the change in plasma rotation and the suppression of turbulent transport in the SOL region indicate that the plasma confinement is modified after the GP injection. Some features of the H-mode-like confinement in the plasma bulk also accompany the SOL observations after application of the additional sharp GP pulse.