Normal T cell repertoire contains regulatory T cells that control autoimmune responses in the periphery. One recent study demonstrated that CD4+CD25+ T cells were generated from autoreactive T cells without negative selection. However, it is unclear whether, in general, positive selection and negative selection of autoreactive T cells are mutually exclusive processes in the thymus. To investigate the ontogeny of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells, neo-autoantigen-bearing transgenic mice expressing chicken egg OVA systemically in the nuclei (Ld-nOVA) were crossed with transgenic mice expressing an OVA-specific TCR (DO11.10). Ld-nOVA × DO11.10 mice had increased numbers of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells in the thymus and the periphery despite clonal deletion. In Ld-nOVA × DO11.10 mice, T cells expressing endogenous TCR αβ chains were CD4+CD25− T cells, whereas T cells expressing autoreactive TCR were selected as CD4+CD25+ T cells, which were exclusively dominant in recombination-activating gene 2-deficient Ld-nOVA × DO11.10 mice. In contrast, in DO11.10 mice, CD4+CD25+ T cells expressed endogenous TCR αβ chains, which disappeared in recombination-activating gene 2-deficient DO11.10 mice. These results indicate that part of autoreactive T cells that have a high affinity TCR enough to cause clonal deletion could be positively selected as CD4+CD25+ T cells in the thymus. Furthermore, it is suggested that endogenous TCR gene rearrangement might critically contribute to the generation of CD4+CD25+ T cells from nonautoreactive T cell repertoire, at least under the limited conditions such as TCR-transgenic models, as well as the generation of CD4+CD25− T cells from autoreactive T cell repertoire.

Divertor plasma characteristics in the Large Helical Device (LHD) have been investigated mainly by using Langmuir probes. The three-dimensional structure of the helical divertor, which is naturally produced in the heliotron-type magnetic configuration, is clearly seen in the measured particle and power deposition profiles on the divertor plates. These observations are consistent with the numerical results of field line tracing. The particle flux to the divertor plates increases almost linearly with the line averaged density. The high-recycling regime and divertor detachment, which are observed in tokamaks, have not been observed even during high density discharges with low input power. Both electron density and temperature decrease with increasing radius in the stochastic layer with open field lines, and at the divertor plate they become fairly low compared with those at the last closed flux surface. This means the reduction of pressure along the magnetic field lines occurs in the open field line region in LHD.

We report observations of the dynamic response of micro-fluctuations and turbulent flux to a low-frequency heating power modulation in the Large Helical Device. The responses of heat flux and micro-fluctuation intensity differ from that of the change in temperature gradient. This result violates the local transport model, where turbulence is determined by the local temperature gradient. A new relationship between flux, gradient and turbulence is found. In addition to the temperature gradient, the heating rate is proposed as a new, direct controlling parameter of turbulence to explain the fast response of turbulence against periodic modulation of heating power.

In the Large Helical Device (LHD), the highest operational averaged beta value has been expanded from 3.2% to 4% in the last 2 years by increasing the heating capability and exploring a new magnetic configuration with a high aspect ratio. Although the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) stability properties are considered to be unfavourable in the new high aspect configuration, the heating efficiency due to neutral beams and the transport properties are expected to be favourable in a high-beta range. In order to clarify the effect of the global ideal MHD unstable mode on the operational regimes in helical systems, especially the beta gradients in the peripheral region and the beta value, the MHD analysis and the transport analysis are performed in a high-beta range of up to 4% in LHD. In a high-beta range of more than 3%, the maxima of the observed thermal pressure gradients at a low order rational magnetic surface in the peripheral region are marginally unstable to the low-mode-number ideal MHD instability. Though a gradual degradation of the local transport in the region has been observed as beta increases, a disruptive degradation of the local transport does not appear in the beta range up to 4%.

OVERVIEW OF THE LARGE HELICAL DEVICE PROJECT. The Large Helical Device (LHD) has successfully started running plasma confinement experiments after a long construction period of eight years. During the construction and machine commissioning phases, a variety of milestones were attained in fusion engineering which successfully led to the first operation, and the first plasma was ignited on 31 March 1998. Two experimental campaigns are planned in 1998. In the first campaign, the magnetic flux mapping clearly demonstrated a nested structure of magnetic surfaces. The first plasma experiments were conducted with second harmonic 84 and 82.6 GHz ECH at a heating power input of 0.35 MW. The magnetic field was set at 1.5 T in these campaigns so as to accumulate operational experience with the superconducting coils. In the second campaign, auxiliary heating with NBI at 3 MW has been carried out. Averaged electron densities of up to 6 × 10 19 m-3 , central temperatures ranging from 1.4 IAEA-F1-CN-69/OV1/4 2 to 1.5 keV and stored energies of up to 0.22 MJ have been attained despite the fact that the impurity level has not yet been minimized. The obtained scarling of energy confinement time has been found to be consistent with the ISS95 scaling law with some enhancement.

Radial profiles of ion temperature and plasma flow are measured at the n͞m 1͞1 magnetic island produced by external perturbation coils in the Large Helical Device. The sheared poloidal flows and sheared radial electric field are observed at the boundaries of the magnetic island, because the poloidal flow vanishes inside the static magnetic island. When the width of the magnetic island becomes large, the flow along the magnetic flux surface inside the magnetic island appears around the O point in the direction which reduces the shear of the poloidal flow at the boundary of the magnetic island.

This Letter presents the discovery of macroscale electron temperature fluctuations with a long radial correlation length comparable to the plasma minor radius in a toroidal plasma. Their spatiotemporal structure is characterized by a low frequency of ∼1-3  kHz, ballistic radial propagation, a poloidal or toroidal mode number of m/n=1/1 (or 2/1), and an amplitude of ∼2% at maximum. Nonlinear coupling between the long-range fluctuations and the microscopic fluctuations is identified. A change of the amplitude of the long-range fluctuation is transmitted across the plasma radius at the velocity which is of the order of the drift velocity.

Edge cooling experiments with a tracer-encapsulated solid pellet in the Large Helical Device (LHD) show a significant rise of core electron temperature (the maximum rise is around 1 keV) as well as in many tokamaks. This experimental result indicates the possible presence of the nonlocality of electron heat transport in plasmas where turbulence as a cause of anomalous transport is dominated. The nonlocal electron temperature rise in the LHD takes place in almost the same parametric domain (e.g. in a low density) as in the tokamaks. Meanwhile, the experimental results of LHD show some new aspects of nonlocal electron temperature rise, for example the delay of the nonlocal rise of core electron temperature relative to the pellet penetration time increases with the increase in collisionality in the core plasma and the decrease in electron temperature gradient scale length in the outer region of the plasma.