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Recent advances in experimental measurements of magneto-optic properties of tokamak plasmas and progress in formulation of numerical algorithms for the analysis of magnetic data have allowed the self-consistent determination of the current density in the JET tokamak, in Ohmic and additionally heated discharges. An investigation of the numerical response of a model with finite parameterization to the uncertainties of the available discrete data is carried out. The error propagation is analysed for various types of discharges, and results on the safety factor profile are presented.

A multichannel far-infrared interferometer used on the Joint European Torus (JET) is described. The light source is a 195-μm DCN laser. The instrument is of the Mach–Zehnder type, with a heterodyne detection system. The modulation frequency (100 kHz) is produced by diffraction from a rotating grating. There are six vertical and two oblique channels. The latter rely on retroreflection from mirrors mounted on the vessel wall. Their vibration is compensated by a second wavelength interferometer at 118.8 μm. The various subsystems are described, with emphasis on features necessitated by (a) large path lengths, (b) remote handling requirements, (c) fluctuations in atmospheric humidity, and (d) unmanned automatic operation. Typical measurements, along with real-time and off-line data analysis, are presented. The phase-shift measurement is made with an accuracy of (1)/(20) of a fringe, corresponding to a line-integrated electron density of 5×1017 m−2. Comparison with other electron density diagnostics are shown. The introduction of additional optics allows measurements of the Faraday effect and a determination of the poloidal magnetic field distribution. The signal processing and data analysis are described. Errors introduced by the calibration procedure, birefringence of the probing beams, toroidal field pickup, the flux geometry, and the density profile are considered. The Faraday angle is measured with an accuracy of 5% and a time resolution of 1–10 ms. The poloidal magnetic field is deduced with an accuracy of ±15%.

Results are presented of transport studies conducted on trace impurities injected with the laser blow-off technique in a variety of JET L mode pulses. In the core of the discharge, the transport is much slower, the impurity diffusion coefficient D is more than an order of magnitude below the values it assumes further out, but still above the neoclassical predictions. The extent of the slow transport core region varies with the magnetic field and with the total plasma current and is broadly correlated with the edge value of the safety factor. Closer analysis reveals that the current profile is essential in determining the radial dependence of D. This parameter appears to undergo a rapid transition to highly anomalous levels in the vicinity of the radial position where the dimensionless shear parameter is equal to 0.5. Within that region D stays moderate even when the electron temperature gradient is high. A marked increase of D in the outer region of the discharge is observed when the power per particle is raised or, alternatively, when the temperature and its gradient grow in that region, but no clear dependence of D on plasma density is found when the electron temperature profile is kept constant. Transport modelling based on the critical Del Tc assumption leads to D profiles that are similar, although not in detailed quantitative agreement, to the experimental ones when the temperature profiles are flat in the centre; when the temperature profiles are peaked in the centre, even the radial dependence of the predicted diffusion profiles is very different from the one observed. Recent theoretical attempts to analyse the radial structure of the microturbulent fluctuations predict a strong positive dependence of anomalous diffusion on the magnetic shear as observed in our experiments

The combination of two regimes of enhanced performance, the H-mode and the pellet enhanced performance (PEP) mode, has been achieved in JET. The strong enhancement of the central plasma parameters, obtained with pellet injection and subsequent auxiliary heating, is found to persist well into the H-mode phase. A characteristic of the PEP regime is that an improvement of the fusion reactivity over non-pellet discharges is obtained under the condition of nearly equal electron and ion temperatures. A maximum neutron production rate of 0.95 × 10l6 s−1 was obtained in a double-null X-point discharge with 2.5 MW of neutral beam heating and 9 MW of ion cyclotron resonance heating, with central ion and electron temperatures of about 10 keV and a central deuterium density of 8.0 × 1019 m−3. The corresponding fusion product nD(0)τETi(0) is between 7.0 and 8.6 × 1020 m−3·s·keV. The enhanced neutron production is predominantly of thermonuclear (Maxwellian) origin. The compatibility of these regimes is an important issue in the context of tokamak ignition strategies. Several technical developments on JET have played a role in the achievement of this result: (1) the use of low voltage plasma breakdown (0.15 V/m) to permit pellet injection in an X-point configuration before the formation of a q = 1 surface; (2) the elimination of ICRH specific impurities with antenna Faraday screens made of solid beryllium; (3) the use of a novel system of plasma radial position control that stabilizes the coupling resistance of the ion cyclotron heating system.