S. Scott

Lower hybrid current drive experiments on Alcator C-Mod: Comparison with theory and simulation

Lower hybrid (LH) current drive experiments have been carried out on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [I. H. Hutchinson et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1511 (1994)] using a radio-frequency system at 4.6GHz. Up to 900kW of LH power has been coupled and driven LH currents have been inferred from magnetic measurements by extrapolating to zero loop voltage, yielding an efficiency of neILHR0∕PLH≈2.5±0.2×1019(A∕W∕m2). We have simulated the LH current drive in these discharges using the combined ray tracing/three-dimensional (r,v⊥,v∥) Fokker–Planck code GENRAY-CQL3D (R. W. Harvey and M. McCoy, in Proceedings of the IAEA Technical Committee Meeting on Simulation and Modeling of Thermonuclear Plasmas, Montreal, Canada, 1992) and found similar current drive efficiencies. The simulated profiles of current density from CQL3D, including both ohmic plus LH drive have been found to be in good agreement with the measured current density from a motional Stark effect diagnostic. Measurements of nonthermal x-ray emission confirm the pres...

Notched velocity profiles and the radial electric field in high ion temperature plasmas in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

A large “notch,” or non-monotonic feature, appears in measured toroidal velocity profiles of the carbon impurity in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 26, 11 (1984)], centered near the radius of strongest ion temperature gradient. This is explained as a consequence of radial momentum transport dominated by anomalous diffusion together with parallel heat friction on the impurity ions arising from the hydrogenic neoclassical parallel heat flow. The toroidal velocity profile of the hydrogenic species is predicted to be monotonic, from measurements of the impurity toroidal velocity, consistent with the anomalous radial diffusion of toroidal momentum. This supports a neoclassical calculation of the radial electric field for near-balanced beam injection. In supershot plasmas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1004 (1987)], a well structure in the radial electric field profile is found in the enhanced confinement region. An associated shear layer separates the core, where the local confine...

Diagnostic systems on alcator C-mod

Abstract An overview of the diagnostics installed on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak is presented. Approximately 25 diagnostic systems are being operated on C-Mod. The compact design of the machine and the cryostat enclosing the vacuum vessel and magnetic field coils make access challenging. Diagnostics are used to study four focus areas: transport, plasma boundary, waves, and macrostability. There is significant overlap between these topics, and they all contribute toward the burning plasma and advanced tokamak thrusts. Several advanced and novel diagnostics contribute to the investigation of C-Mod plasmas, e.g., electron cyclotron emission, phase-contrast imaging, gas puff imaging, probe measurements, and active magnetohydrodynamic antennas.

Full wave effects on the lower hybrid wave spectrum and driven current profile in tokamak plasmas

A numerical modeling of current profile modification by lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) using a fullwave/Fokker-Planck simulation code is presented. A MHD stable LHCD discharge on Alcator C-Mod was analyzed, and the current profile from full wave simulations was found to show better agreement with the experiment than a ray-tracing code. Comparison of full wave and ray-tracing simulation shows that, although ray-tracing can reproduce the stochastic wave spectrum broadening, the full wave calculation predicts even wider spectrum broadening, and the wave spectrum fills all of the kinematically allowed domain. This is the first demonstration of LHCD current profile modeling using a full wave simulation code in a multi-pass absorption regime, showing the clear impact of full wave effects on the LHCD driven current profile.

20 years of research on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

The object of this review is to summarize the achievements of research on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [Hutchinson et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1511 (1994) and Marmar, Fusion Sci. Technol. 51, 261 (2007)] and to place that research in the context of the quest for practical fusion energy. C-Mod is a compact, high-field tokamak, whose unique design and operating parameters have produced a wealth of new and important results since it began operation in 1993, contributing data that extends tests of critical physical models into new parameter ranges and into new regimes. Using only high-power radio frequency (RF) waves for heating and current drive with innovative launching structures, C-Mod operates routinely at reactor level power densities and achieves plasma pressures higher than any other toroidal confinement device. C-Mod spearheaded the development of the vertical-target divertor and has always operated with high-Z metal plasma facing components—approaches subsequently adopted for ITER. C-Mod has made ground-breaking discoveries in divertor physics and plasma-material interactions at reactor-like power and particle fluxes and elucidated the critical role of cross-field transport in divertor operation, edge flows and the tokamak density limit. C-Mod developed the I-mode and the Enhanced Dα H-mode regimes, which have high performance without large edge localized modes and with pedestal transport self-regulated by short-wavelength electromagnetic waves. C-Mod has carried out pioneering studies of intrinsic rotation and demonstrated that self-generated flow shear can be strong enough in some cases to significantly modify transport. C-Mod made the first quantitative link between the pedestal temperature and the H-modes performance, showing that the observed self-similar temperature profiles were consistent with critical-gradient-length theories and followed up with quantitative tests of nonlinear gyrokinetic models. RF research highlights include direct experimental observation of ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) mode-conversion, ICRF flow drive, demonstration of lower-hybrid current drive at ITER-like densities and fields and, using a set of novel diagnostics, extensive validation of advanced RF codes. Disruption studies on C-Mod provided the first observation of non-axisymmetric halo currents and non-axisymmetric radiation in mitigated disruptions. A summary of important achievements and discoveries are included.

Lower hybrid heating and current drive on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

On the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) is being used to modify the current profile with the aim of obtaining advanced tokamak (AT) performance in plasmas with parameters similar to those that would be required on ITER. To date, power levels in excess of 1 MW at a frequency of 4.6 GHz have been coupled into a variety of plasmas. Experiments have established that LHCD on C-Mod behaves globally as predicted by theory. Bulk current drive efficiencies, n20IlhR/Plh ~ 0.25, inferred from magnetics and MSE are in line with theory. Quantitative comparisons between local measurements, MSE, ECE and hard x-ray bremsstrahlung, and theory/simulation using the GENRAY, TORIC-LH CQL3D and TSC-LSC codes have been performed. These comparisons have demonstrated the off-axis localization of the current drive, its magnitude and location dependence on the launched n∥ spectrum, and the use of LHCD during the current ramp to save volt-seconds and delay the peaking of the current profile. Broadening of the x-ray emission profile during ICRF heating indicates that the current drive location can be controlled by the electron temperature, as expected. In addition, an alteration in the plasma toroidal rotation profile during LHCD has been observed with a significant rotation in the counter-current direction. Notably, the rotation is accompanied by peaking of the density and temperature profiles on a current diffusion time scale inside of the half radius where the LH absorption is taking place.

Design, and initial experiment results of a novel LH launcher on Alcator C-Mod

The design, construction and initial results of a new lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) launcher on Alcator C-Mod (Hutchinson et al 1994 Phys. Plasmas 1 1511) are presented. The new LHCD launcher (LH2) is based on a novel splitter concept which evenly distributes the microwave power in four ways in the poloidal direction. This design allows for simplification of the feeding structure while keeping the flexibility to vary the peak launched toroidal index of refraction, Ntoroidal, from ?3.8 to 3.8. An integrated model predicts good plasma coupling over a wide range of edge densities, while poloidal variations of the edge density are found to affect the evenness of power splitting in the poloidal direction. The measured transmission loss is about 30% lower than the previous launcher, and a clean Ntoroidal spectrum has been confirmed. Power handling capability exceeding an empirical weak conditioning limit and reliable operation up to 1.1?MW net LHCD power have been achieved. A survey of antenna?plasma coupling shows the existence of a millimetric vacuum gap in front of the launcher. Fully non-inductive, reversed shear plasma operation has been demonstrated and sustained for multiple current diffusion times. The current drive efficiency, ?LH ? neR0Ip/PLH, of these plasmas is (0.2?0.25) ? 1020?m?2A?W?1, which is in agreement with the expected efficiency on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

On the formation and stability of long-lived impurity-ion snakes in Alcator C-Mod

Long-lived (1, 1) ?snake? modes were discovered nearly three decades ago, but basic questions regarding their formation, stability, and superb particle confinement?shown by surviving tens to hundreds of sawtooth cycles?have remained unanswered. High-resolution spectroscopic imaging diagnostics permit studies of heavy-impurity-ion snakes with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution, making it possible to positively identify the SXR signals with specific ion charge states and to infer, for the first time, the perturbed impurity density, Zeff, and resistivity at the centre of these long-lived helical modes. The results show a new scenario for the formation of heavy-impurity-ion snakes, which can begin as a broad 1/1 kink asymmetry of the central impurity-ion density, that grows and undergoes a seamless transition to a large crescent-shaped helical island-like structure inside q?<?1, with a regularly sawtoothing core. This type of formation departs strongly from the nonlinear island model based on a modified Rutherford equation proposed originally to describe the pellet-induced snakes and expanded further to account for the impurity effects (e.g. and ). These new high-resolution observations show details of their evolution and the accompanying sawtooth oscillations that suggest important differences between the density and temperature dynamics, ruling out a purely pressure-driven process. Instead, many features arise naturally from nonlinear interactions in a 3D MHD model that separately evolves the plasma density and temperature.

CONFINEMENT AND TRANSPORT RESEARCH IN ALCATOR C-MOD

Abstract Global and local transport experiments in ohmic, L-mode and H-mode regimes on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak are summarized. For ohmic plasmas, earlier results derived for energy confinement scaling in the Alcator (linear) regime have been confirmed, and the saturated confinement regime has been shown to be equivalent to that of L-mode. For auxiliary heated regimes, C-Mod provided a unique laboratory to test the standard scaling laws that had been previously derived. C-Mod’s L-mode performance matches the L-mode scaling laws quite well, but the confinement times in H-mode were about 50% above the existing H-mode scaling laws. This difference was significant and pointed up shortcomings in the range and conditioning of the existing database. H-mode studies emphasize quasi-steady regimes with good energy confinement, no impurity accumulation, and no large edge-localized modes. A new H-mode regime, where the pedestal is regulated by a continuous quasi-coherent mode, has been investigated extensively. The regime is most accessible at higher safety factor, triangularity, and collisionality and at low ion mass, suggesting that the mode is a form of resistive ballooning. Studies on C-Mod first showed the quantitative link between edge temperatures, core temperature gradients, and core confinement. This link unified L-mode and H-mode and established a strong connection between local and global transport. Further work on the role of critical gradient lengths and marginal stability lent quantitative support to the ion temperature gradient theories for ion transport and have helped elucidate nonlinear saturation mechanisms for the turbulence. Local transport studies demonstrated connections between transport channels, with energy, particle, and momentum transport varying across regimes in similar ways. Experiments carried out in collaboration with the DIII-D, ASDEX-U, and JET groups confirmed the dimensionless scaling approach over the widest available range in machine sizes. These studies suggest that plasma physics is the dominant influence on transport in the core and pedestal for standard L- and H-mode discharges. Dimensionless scaling experiments have shown a strong improvement in confinement with the normalized gyro size (1/ρ*). Confinement was found to be Bohm-like in L-mode and gyro-Bohm-like in H-mode. These experiments also showed a strong degradation in confinement with collisionality.

Tests of local transport theory and reduced wall impurity influx with highly radiative plasmas in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

The electron temperature (Te) profile in neutral beam-heated supershot plasmas (Te0∼6–7 keV ion temperature Ti0∼15–20 keV, beam power Pb∼16 MW) was remarkably invariant when radiative losses were increased significantly through gas puffing of krypton and xenon in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [McGuire et al., Phys. Plasmas 2, 2176 (1995)]. Trace impurity concentrations (nz/ne∼10−3) generated almost flat and centrally peaked radiation profiles, respectively, and increased the radiative losses to 45%–90% of the input power (from the normal ∼25%). Energy confinement was not degraded at radiated power fractions up to 80%. A 20%–30% increase in Ti, in spite of an increase in ion–electron power loss, implies a factor of ∼3 drop in the local ion thermal diffusivity. These experiments form the basis for a nearly ideal test of transport theory, since the change in the beam heating power profile is modest, while the distribution of power flow between (1) radiation and (2) conduction plus convection changes radica...