Edge radial electric fields were induced in the edge of the TEXTOR tokamak by means of a polarization electrode in order to study their influence on the plasma edge profiles and its confinement. The studies include the generation of H-mode behaviour with either positive or negative polarity. Particle confinement ( T~) of deuterium and of impurity ions as well as energy confinement (73 are investigated. For positive fields which remain below the threshold for the L-H transition, an interesting regime of reduced particle confinement without noticeable energy confinement loss is found. A strong asymmetry in the edge density profiles with respect to the electric field sign is observed at these low polarization voltages. Above the threshold, H-mode behaviour with increased energy confinement and especially particle confinement can be produced with either polarity of the applied electric field. It is, however, found that, whereas the energy confinement in positive H-modes is at least as good as that in negative ones, the ratio T~/ T~ is about three times lower in the former case.

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Experimental results from TEXTOR are presented to provide strong evidence for the feasibility of the "cold radiative plasma mantle", a concept which might be a possible solution for the energy exhaust problem in a fusion reactor. The concept is compared with the high density divertor. The compatibility to other constraints, limitations and open problems are discussed, in particular the issues of stationarity (feed-back control, thermal instabilities, q=2), energy confinement. Heexhaust and fuel dilution.

The recent experiments on accumulative behaviour of heavy impurities in TEXTOR with test limiters of molybdenum and tungsten and puffing of xenon are briefly reviewed. The results of the reconstruction of the transport coefficients of high-Z ions in the accumulation stage are presented. They confirm the neoclassical nature of the convective particle transport, leading to peaking of the impurity density. A mechanism triggering accumulation, invoking the temperature dependence of neoclassical flows of impurities, is discussed and the threshold of accumulation obtained is compared with experimental data. Processes which can lead to a saturation of the accumulation, caused by a modification of the flux component proportional to the temperature gradient, are analysed. The results of numerical modelling for experiments in TEXTOR with different durations and intensities of xenon puffing are presented. The role of high-Z ions under reactor conditions is analysed, and it is shown that in a reactor, such as ITER, the discussed heavy impurity driven instabilities should be suppressed

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