Since the first H-mode discharges in 2010, the duration of the H-mode state has been extended and a significantly wider operational window of plasma parameters has been attained. Using a second neutral beam (NB) source and improved tuning of equilibrium configuration with real-time plasma control, a stored energy of W tot ∼ 450 kJ has been achieved with a corresponding energy confinement time of τ E ∼ 163 ms. Recent discharges, produced in the fall of 2012, have reached plasma β N up to 2.9 and surpassed the n = 1 ideal no-wall stability limit computed for H-mode pressure profiles, which is one of the key threshold parameters defining advanced tokamak operation. Typical H-mode discharges were operated with a plasma current of 600 kA at a toroidal magnetic field B T = 2 T. L-H transitions were obtained with 0.8-3.0 MW of NB injection power in both single-and double-null configurations, with H-mode durations up to ∼15 s at 600 kA of plasma current. The measured power threshold as a function of lineaveraged density showed a roll-over with a minimum value of ∼0.8 MW at ne ∼ 2×10 19 m −3 . Several edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques during H-mode were examined with successful results including resonant magnetic perturbation, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogging and electron cyclotron current drive injection into the pedestal region. We observed various ELM responses, i.e. suppression or mitigation, depending on the relative phase of in-vessel control coil currents. In particular, with the 90 • phase of the n = 1 RMP as the most resonant configuration, a complete suppression of type-I ELMs was demonstrated. In addition, fast vertical jogging of the plasma column was also observed to be effective in ELM pace-making. SMBI-mitigated ELMs, a state of mitigated ELMs, were sustained for a few tens of ELM periods. A simple cellular automata ('sand-pile') model predicted that shallow deposition near the pedestal foot induced small-sized high-frequency ELMs, leading to the mitigation of large ELMs. In addition to the ELM control experiments, various physics topics were explored focusing on ITER-relevant physics issues such as the alteration of toroidal rotation caused by both electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and externally applied 3D fields, and the observed rotation drop by ECRH in NB-heated plasmas was investigated in terms of either a reversal of the turbulence-driven residual stress due to the transition of ion temperature gradient to trapped electron mode turbulence or neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque by the internal kink mode. The suppression of runaway electrons using massive gas injection of deuterium showed that runaway electrons were avoided only below 3 T in KSTAR. Operation in 2013 is expected to routinely exceed the n = 1 ideal MHD no-wall stability boundary in the long-pulse H-mode ( 10 s) by applying real-time shaping control, enabling n = 1 resistive wall mode active control studies. In addition, intensive works for ELM mitigation, ELM dynamics, toroidal ro...

Suppression or mitigation of edge-localized mode (ELM) crashes is necessary for ITER. The strategy to suppress all the ELM crashes by the resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) should be applied as soon as the first low-to-high confinement (L-H) transition occurs. A control algorithm based on real-time machine learning (ML) enables such an approach: it classifies the H-mode transition and the ELMy phase in real-time and automatically applies the preemptive RMP. This paper reports the algorithm design, which is now implemented in the KSTAR plasma-control system, and the corresponding experimental demonstration of typical high-δ KSTAR H-mode plasmas. As a result, all initial ELM crashes are suppressed with an acceptable safety factor at the edge (q95) and with RMP field adjustment. Moreover, the ML-driven ELM-crash-suppression discharges remain stable without further degradation due to the regularization of the plasma pedestal.

The integrated resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP)-based ELM-crash-control process aims to enhance the plasma performance during the RMP-driven ELM crash suppression, where the RMP induces an unwanted confinement degradation. In this study, the normalized beta (βN) is introduced as a metric for plasma performance. The integrated process incorporates the latest achievements in the RMP technique to enhance βN efficiently. The integrated process triggers the n = 1 edge-localized RMP (ERMP) at the L-H transition timing using the real-time machine learning (ML) classifier. The pre-emptive RMP onset can reduce the required external heating power for achieving the same βN by over 10 % compared to the conventional RMP onset. During the RMP phase, the adaptive feedback RMP ELM controller, demonstrating its performance in previous experiments, plays a crucial role in maximizing βN during the suppression phase and sustaining the βN-enhanced suppression state by optimizing the RMP strength. The integrated process achieves βN up to ~2.65 during the suppression phase, which is ~10 % higher than the previous KSTAR record but ~6 % lower than the target of the K-DEMO first phase (βN = 2.8), and maintains the suppression phase above the lower limit of target βN (= 2.4) for ~4 s (~60 τE). In addition to βN enhancement, the integrated process demonstrates quicker restoration of the suppression phase and recovery of βN compared to the adaptive control with the n = 1 conventional RMP (CRMP). The post-analysis of the experiment shows the localized effect of the ERMP spectrum in radial and the close relationship between the evolution of βN and the electron temperature.

Resonant error fields with toroidal harmonics n = 1 and n = 2 in otherwise axisymmetric tokamak plasmas can drive disruptive locked modes when their strength exceeds a threshold value. This paper presents the sensitivity of error field threshold in global parameters such as line-averaged density and toroidal magnetic field as well as toroidal harmonics dependence in KSTAR L-mode plasmas. The error field threshold for mode-locking increases along with density up to a roll-over density, which coincides well with the linear ohmic confinement (LOC) to saturated ohmic confinement (SOC) density for the studied KSTAR plasmas. This non-monotonic density correlation of the error field threshold in LOC–SOC can be explained by a modification of existing theoretical scaling in SOC, while plasma rotation can also play an important role in setting the resonant error field threshold.

The ECX Project, Brookhaven Lab's predecessor to the RHIC e-Cooler, includes a prototype RF tuner mechanism capable of both coarse and fast tuning. This tuner concept, adapted originally from a DESY design, has longer stroke and significantly higher loads attributable to the very stiff ECX cavity shape. Structural design, kinematics, controls, thermal and RF issues are discussed and certain improvements are proposed.