One of the scientific success stories of fusion research over the past decade is the development of the ExB shear stabilization model to explain the formation of transport barriers in magnetic confinement devices. This model was originally developed to explain the transport barrier formed at the plasma edge in tokamaks after the L (low) to H (high) transition. This concept has the universality needed to explain the edge transport barriers seen in limiter and divertor tokamaks, stellarators, and mirror machines. More recently, this model has been applied to explain the further confinement improvement from H (high)-mode to VH (very high)-mode seen in some tokamaks, where the edge transport barrier becomes wider. Most recently, this paradigm has been applied to the core transport barriers formed in plasmas with negative or low magnetic shear in the plasma core. These examples of confinement improvement are of considerable physical interest; it is not often that a system self-organizes to a higher energy state with reduced turbulence and transport when an additional source of free energy is applied to it. The transport decrease that is associated with ExB velocity shear effects also has significant practical consequences for fusion research. The fundamental physics involved in transport reduction is the effect of ExB shear on the growth, radial extent and phase correlation of turbulent eddies in the plasma. The same fundamental transport reduction process can be operational in various portions of the plasma because there are a number ways to change the radial electric field Er. An important theme in this area is the synergistic effect of ExB velocity shear and magnetic shear. Although the ExB velocity shear appears to have an effect on broader classes of microturbulence, magnetic shear can mitigate some potentially harmful effects of ExB velocity shear and facilitate turbulence stabilization.

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Effects of E×B velocity shear and magnetic shear on turbulence and transport in magnetic confinement devices

Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers

The major increase in discharge duration and plasma energy in a next step DT fusion reactor will give rise to important plasma-material effects that will critically influence its operation, safety and performance. Erosion will increase to a scale of several centimetres from being barely measurable at a micron scale in today's tokamaks. Tritium co-deposited with carbon will strongly affect the operation of machines with carbon plasma facing components. Controlling plasma-wall interactions is critical to achieving high performance in present day tokamaks, and this is likely to continue to be the case in the approach to practical fusion reactors. Recognition of the important consequences of these phenomena stimulated an internationally co-ordinated effort in the field of plasma-surface interactions supporting the Engineering Design Activities of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), and significant progress has been made in better understanding these issues. The paper reviews the underlying physical processes and the existing experimental database of plasma-material interactions both in tokamaks and laboratory simulation facilities for conditions of direct relevance to next step fusion reactors. Two main topical groups of interaction are considered: (i) erosion/redeposition from plasma sputtering and disruptions, including dust and flake generation and (ii) tritium retention and removal. The use of modelling tools to interpret the experimental results and make projections for conditions expected in future devices is explained. Outstanding technical issues and specific recommendations on potential R&D avenues for their resolution are presented.

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Plasma{material interactions in current tokamaks and their implications for next step fusion reactors

Progress in the area of MHD stability and disruptions, since the publication of the 1999 ITER Physics Basis document (1999 Nucl. Fusion 39 2137-2664), is reviewed. Recent theoretical and experimental research has made important advances in both understanding and control of MHD stability in tokamak plasmas. Sawteeth are anticipated in the ITER baseline ELMy H-mode scenario, but the tools exist to avoid or control them through localized current drive or fast ion generation. Active control of other MHD instabilities will most likely be also required in ITER. Extrapolation from existing experiments indicates that stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes by highly localized feedback-controlled current drive should be possible in ITER. Resistive wall modes are a key issue for advanced scenarios, but again, existing experiments indicate that these modes can be stabilized by a combination of plasma rotation and direct feedback control with non-axisymmetric coils. Reduction of error fields is a requirement for avoiding non-rotating magnetic island formation and for maintaining plasma rotation to help stabilize resistive wall modes. Recent experiments have shown the feasibility of reducing error fields to an acceptable level by means of non-axisymmetric coils, possibly controlled by feedback. The MHD stability limits associated with advanced scenarios are becoming well understood theoretically, and can be extended by tailoring of the pressure and current density profiles as well as by other techniques mentioned here. There have been significant advances also in the control of disruptions, most notably by injection of massive quantities of gas, leading to reduced halo current fractions and a larger fraction of the total thermal and magnetic energy dissipated by radiation. These advances in disruption control are supported by the development of means to predict impending disruption, most notably using neural networks. In addition to these advances in means to control or ameliorate the consequences of MHD instabilities, there has been significant progress in improving physics understanding and modelling. This progress has been in areas including the mechanisms governing NTM growth and seeding, in understanding the damping controlling RWM stability and in modelling RWM feedback schemes. For disruptions there has been continued progress on the instability mechanisms that underlie various classes of disruption, on the detailed modelling of halo currents and forces and in refining predictions of quench rates and disruption power loads. Overall the studies reviewed in this chapter demonstrate that MHD instabilities can be controlled, avoided or ameliorated to the extent that they should not compromise ITER operation, though they will necessarily impose a range of constraints.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0029-5515/47/6/S03/pdf

Chapter 3: MHD stability, operational limits and disruptions

Progress, since the ITER Physics Basis publication (ITER Physics Basis Editors et al 1999 Nucl. Fusion 39 2137–2664), in understanding the processes that will determine the properties of the plasma edge and its interaction with material elements in ITER is described. Experimental areas where significant progress has taken place are energy transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) in particular of the anomalous transport scaling, particle transport in the SOL that plays a major role in the interaction of diverted plasmas with the main-chamber material elements, edge localized mode (ELM) energy deposition on material elements and the transport mechanism for the ELM energy from the main plasma to the plasma facing components, the physics of plasma detachment and neutral dynamics including the edge density profile structure and the control of plasma particle content and He removal, the erosion of low- and high-Z materials in fusion devices, their transport to the core plasma and their migration at the plasma edge including the formation of mixed materials, the processes determining the size and location of the retention of tritium in fusion devices and methods to remove it and the processes determining the efficiency of the various fuelling methods as well as their development towards the ITER requirements. This experimental progress has been accompanied by the development of modelling tools for the physical processes at the edge plasma and plasma–materials interaction and the further validation of these models by comparing their predictions with the new experimental results. Progress in the modelling development and validation has been mostly concentrated in the following areas: refinement in the predictions for ITER with plasma edge modelling codes by inclusion of detailed geometrical features of the divertor and the introduction of physical effects, which can play a major role in determining the divertor parameters at the divertor for ITER conditions such as hydrogen radiation transport and neutral–neutral collisions, modelling of the ion orbits at the plasma edge, which can play a role in determining power deposition at the divertor target, models for plasma–materials and plasma dynamics interaction during ELMs and disruptions, models for the transport of impurities at the plasma edge to describe the core contamination by impurities and the migration of eroded materials at the edge plasma and its associated tritium retention and models for the turbulent processes that determine the anomalous transport of energy and particles across the SOL. The implications for the expected performance of the reference regimes in ITER, the operation of the ITER device and the lifetime of the plasma facing materials are discussed.

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Chapter 4: Power and particle control

This section discusses fusion plasma research that needs to be carried out to develop fusion power plants. Burning plasma, in which self-heating by energetic alph aparticles plays an essential role, should be recognized as autonomous system. This is quite different from present plasma experiments, suggesting a possibility to yield some qualitative changes in fusion plasma research. Research with ITER is strongly expected to contribute to this burning plasma physics. In addition, plasma performance in steady-state and at high beta is very important in fusion power plants from the engineering and economical viewpoints. Plasma parameters expected for fusion power plants are discussed, and present status of experimental research is reviewed. Research in devices other than ITER with unique features would be instrumental for exploring high performance plasmas. A necessity of research complementary to ITER plasma is discussed.

Fusion Plasma Research toward Fusion Power Plants

Summary of ITER panel discussions

Heat flux on limiters in low-q discharges

This paper reports on the recent assessment of the Ion Cyclotron Wall Conditioning (ICWC) technique for isotopic ratio control, fuel removal and recovery after disruptions, which has been performed on TORE SUPRA, TEXTOR, ASDEX Upgrade and JET. ICWC discharges were produced using the standard ICRF heating antennas of each device, at different frequencies and toroidal fields, either in continuous or pulsed mode. Intrinsic ICWC discharge inhomogeneities could be partly compensated by applying a small vertical magnetic field, resulting in the vertical extension of the discharge in JET and TEXTOR. The conditioning efficiency was assessed from the flux of desorbed and retained species, measured by means of mass spectrometry. In Helium ICWC discharges, fuel removal rates between 10 D.m.s to 3.10 D.m.s were measured, with a linear dependence on the coupled RF power and on the He density. ICWC scenarios have been developed in D or H plasmas for isotopic exchange. The H (or D) outgassing was found to increase with the D (resp. H) partial pressure. In continuous mode, wall retention is on the average two to ten times higher than desorption, due to the high reionization probability of desorbed species in ICWC discharges, where the electron density is about 10 m . Retention can be minimized in pulsed ICWC discharges without severely reducing outpumping. Pulsed HeICWC discharges have been successfully used on TORE SUPRA to recover normal operation after disruptions, when subsequent plasma initiation would not have been possible without conditioning.

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Recent results on ICRF assisted wall conditioning in mid and large size tokamaks

The Doublet III tokamak (R = 1.43 m, a = 0.45 m, b/a = 3.1) is operated by General Atomic Company (GA) for studies of vertically elongated plasma cross-sections by research groups from GA and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). Stable ohmically heated discharges with a duration of up to 0.8 seconds have been obtained with a variety of plasma shapes. The JAERI group has produced diverted and non-diverted dee-shaped plasmas, the latter with elongations of up to 1.6. The GA group has produced droplet plasmas (two separated teardrops) with elongations of up to 1.5, doublet plasmas with an internal separatrix and elongations of up to 3.2, and an expanded boundary configuration. Record values of plasma current have been achieved: 1.0 MA in the dee and 2.2 MA in the doublet at a toroidal field of 2.4T. Dees with q(a) ≈ 2.6 and diverted dees with q(a) 2 have been obtained.

/pdf/plasma-equilibrium-control-in-doublet-iii-11zqkogugz.pdf

Michiya Shimada

Papers

Fusion Plasma Research toward Fusion Power Plants

Summary of ITER panel discussions

Heat flux on limiters in low-q discharges

Recent results on ICRF assisted wall conditioning in mid and large size tokamaks

Plasma equilibrium control in doublet III