Z. Chang

Enhancement of Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor performance by lithium conditioning

Wall conditioning in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [K. M. McGuire et al., Phys. Plasmas 2, 2176 (1995)] by injection of lithium pellets into the plasma has resulted in large improvements in deuterium–tritium fusion power production (up to 10.7 MW), the Lawson triple product (up to 1021 m−3 s keV), and energy confinement time (up to 330 ms). The maximum plasma current for access to high‐performance supershots has been increased from 1.9 to 2.7 MA, leading to stable operation at plasma stored energy values greater than 5 MJ. The amount of lithium on the limiter and the effectiveness of its action are maximized through (1) distributing the Li over the limiter surface by injection of four Li pellets into Ohmic plasmas of increasing major and minor radius, and (2) injection of four Li pellets into the Ohmic phase of supershot discharges before neutral‐beam heating is begun.

A threshold for excitation of neoclassical tearing modes

Stability criterion for neoclassical tearing modes is obtained from the drift kinetic equation. A finite amplitude of a magnetic island is required for mode excitation. The threshold is determined by the ratio of the transversal and the parallel transport near the island when the flattening of the pressure profile eliminates the bootstrap current. A number of supershots from the database of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [D. J. Grove and D. M. Meade, Nucl. Fusion 25, 1167 (1985)] are compared with the theory. In cases where the modes were observed in experiment the stability criterion was violated.

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...

Enhanced performance of deuterium--tritium-fueled supershots using extensive lithium conditioning in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

In the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [K. M. McGuire et al., Phys. Plasmas 2, 2176 (1995)] a substantial improvement in fusion performance has been realized by combining the enhanced confinement due to tritium fueling with the enhanced confinement due to extensive conditioning of the limiter with lithium. This combination has resulted in not only significantly higher global energy confinement times than have previously been obtained in high current supershots, but also in the highest central ratio of thermonuclear fusion output power to input power observed to date.

High‐frequency core localized modes in neutral beam heated plasmas on TFTR

A band of high‐frequency modes in the range 50–150 kHz with intermediate toroidal mode numbers 4<n<10 are commonly observed in the core of supershot plasmas on TFTR [R. Hawryluk, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 33, 1509 (1991)]. Two distinct varieties of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes are identified, corresponding to a flute‐like mode predominantly appearing around the q=1 surface and an outward ballooning mode for q≳1. The flute‐like modes have nearly equal amplitude on the high‐field and low‐field side of the magnetic axis, and are mostly observed in moderate performance supershot plasmas with τE<2τL, while the ballooning‐like modes have enhanced amplitude on the low‐field side of the magnetic axis and tend to appear in higher performance supershot plasmas with τE≳2τL, where τL is the equivalent L‐mode confinement time. Both modes appear to propagate in the ion diamagnetic drift direction and are highly localized with radial widths Δr∼5–10 cm, fluctuation levels n/n, Te/Te<0.01, and radial displacemen...

Toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes in TFTR deuterium–tritium plasmas

Purely alpha-particle-driven Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs) with toroidal mode numbers n=1-6 have been observed in Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) plasmas on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [D.J. Grove and D.M. Meade, Nucl. Fusion 25, 1167 (1985)]. The appearance of mode activity following termination of neutral beam injection in plasmas with q(0)>1 is generally consistent with theoretical predictions of TAE stability [G.Y. Fu et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 4036 (1996]. Internal reflectometer measurements of TAE activity is compared with theoretical calculations of the radial mode structure. Core localization of the modes to the region of reduced central magnetic shear is confirmed, however the mode structure can deviate significantly from theoretical estimates. The peak measured TAE amplitude of delta n/n~10(superscript -4) at r/a~0.3-0.4 corresponds to delta B/B~10-5, while dB/B~10(superscript -8) is measured at the plasma edge. Enhanced alpha particle loss associated with TAE activity has not been observed.

Alpha particle losses from Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor deuterium–tritium plasmas

Because alpha particle losses can have a significant influence on tokamak reactor viability, the loss of deuterium–tritium alpha particles from the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [K. M. McGuire et al., Phys. Plasmas 2, 2176 (1995)] has been measured under a wide range of conditions. In TFTR, first orbit loss and stochastic toroidal field ripple diffusion are always present. Other losses can arise due to magnetohydrodynamic instabilities or due to waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. No alpha particle losses have yet been seen due to collective instabilities driven by alphas. Ion Bernstein waves can drive large losses of fast ions from TFTR, and details of those losses support one element of the alpha energy channeling scenario.

Alpha particle-driven toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes in Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor deuterium–tritium plasmas: Theory and experiments

The toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAE) in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [K. Young, et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 26, 11 (1984)]deuterium-tritium plasmas are analyzed using the NOVA-K code [C.Z. Cheng, Phys. Reports 211, 1 (1992)]. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental measurements in detail. In most cases, the theory agrees with the observations in terms of mode frequency, mode structure, and mode stability. However, one mode with toroidal mode number n = 2 is observed to be poloidally localized on the high field side of the magnetic axis with a mode frequency substantially below the TAE frequency.

The stability of advanced operational regimes on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

The performance of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [D. Meade and the TFTR Group, in Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Washington, D.C., 1990 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1991), Vol. I, pp. 9–24], as defined by the maximum fusion power production, has been limited, not by confinement, but by stability to pressure-driven modes. Two classes of current profile modification have been investigated to overcome this limit. A new technique has been developed to increase the internal inductance of low-q (q≈4), high-current (Ip>2MA) plasmas. As was the case at higher edge q, the disruptive β limit has been found to increase roughly linearly with the internal inductance, li. Plasmas with hollow current profiles, i.e., reversed shear, are also predicted and experimentally observed to have increased stability in the negative shear region to ballooning and kink modes. However, performance of these plasmas is still limited by pressure-driven modes in the normal shear region.

The role of the neutral beam fueling profile in the performance of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and other tokamak plasmas

Scalings for the stored energy and neutron yield, determined from experimental data, are applied to both deuterium-only and deuterium–tritium plasmas in different neutral-beam-heated operational domains in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [Nucl. Fusion 25, 1167 (1985)]. The domain of the data considered includes the Supershot, high poloidal beta, low-mode, and limiter high-mode operational regimes, as well as discharges with a reversed magnetic shear configuration. The new important parameter in the present scaling is the peakedness of the heating beam fueling profile shape. Ion energy confinement and neutron production are relatively insensitive to other plasma parameters compared to the beam fueling peakedness parameter and the heating beam power when considering plasmas that are stable to magnetohydrodynamic modes. However, the stored energy of the electrons is independent of the beam fueling peakedness. The implication of the scalings based on this parameter is related to theoretical transport models s...