DIII-D experiments on rapid shutdown runaway electron (RE) beams have improved the understanding of the processes involved in RE beam control and dissipation. Improvements in RE beam feedback control have enabled stable confinement of RE beams out to the volt-second limit of the ohmic coil, as well as enabling a ramp down to zero current. Spectroscopic studies of the RE beam have shown that neutrals tend to be excluded from the RE beam centre. Measurements of the RE energy distribution function indicate a broad distribution with mean energy of order several MeV and peak energies of order 30–40 MeV. The distribution function appears more skewed towards low energies than expected from avalanche theory. The RE pitch angle appears fairly directed (θ ∼ 0.2) at high energies and more isotropic at lower energies (ε < 100 keV). Collisional dissipation of RE beam current has been studied by massive gas injection of different impurities into RE beams; the equilibrium assimilation of these injected impurities appears to be reasonably well described by radial pressure balance between neutrals and ions. RE current dissipation following massive impurity injection is shown to be more rapid than expected from avalanche theory—this anomalous dissipation may be linked to enhanced radial diffusion caused by the significant quantity of high-Z impurities (typically argon) in the plasma. The final loss of RE beams to the wall has been studied: it was found that conversion of magnetic to kinetic energy is small for RE loss times smaller than the background plasma ohmic decay time of order 1–2 ms.

IAEA-CN-116/EX/P5-29 This is a preprint of a paper intended for presentation at a scientific meeting. Because of the provisional nature of its content and since changes of substance or detail may have to be made before publication, the preprint is made available on the understanding that it will not be cited in the literature or in any way be reproduced in its present form. The views expressed and the statements made remain the responsibility of the named author(s); the views do not necessarily reflect those of the government of the designating Member State(s) or of the designating organization(s). In particular, neither the IAEA nor any other organization or body sponsoring this meeting can be held responsible for any material reproduced in this preprint.

Abstract. A study of three-dimensional perturbed magnetic field structures and transport for edge localized mode control experiments with resonant magnetic perturbations at DIII-D is presented. We focus on ITER-Similar Shape plasmas at ITER relevant electron pedestal collisionalities ν * e ∼ 0.2. This study is performed in comparison to results from TEXTOR-Dynamic Ergodic Divertor circular limiter plasmas. For both experiments the magnetic field structure is analyzed in the vacuum paradigm -superimposing the external RMP field on the unperturbed equilibrium. At TEXTOR this description holds for normalized poloidal flux Ψ N > 0.7 without tearing modes driven by the RMP field. For DIII-D H-mode plasmas the validity of this approach still needs to be established. In this paper a method is discussed to diagnose the degree of edge stochastization based on a comparison between modeled magnetic footprints on the divertor targets and experimental data. Clear evidence is presented for the existence of a generic separatrix perturbation causing striation of target particle fluxes. However, heat fluxes into these striations are small. This observation can be explained by accounting for the different heat and particle source locations and the 3D trajectories of the open, perturbed field lines towards the divertor target. Analysis of the transport characteristics filling the perturbed separatrix lobes based on initial EM C3/EIREN E modeling suggests the existence of open field lines connecting the stochastic edge to the target pattern. However, the width and inward most extent of the stochastic layer can not yet be quantified.

Results from a series of dedicated experiments measuring the effect of particle and energy pulses from Type-I Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) in the DIII-D scrape-off layer (SOL) and divertor are compared with a simple model of ELM propagation in the boundary plasma. The simple model asserts that the propagation of ELM particle and energy perturbations is dominated by ion parallel convection along SOL field lines and the recovery from the ELM perturbation is determined by recycling physics. Time scales associated with the initial changes of boundary plasma parameters are expected to be on the order of the ion transit time from the outer midplane, where the ELM instability is initiated, to the divertor targets. To test the model, the ion convection velocity is changed in the experiment by varying the plasma density. At moderate to high density, n,/nG, = 0.5-0.8, the delays in the response of the boundary plasma to the midplane ELM pulses, the density dependence of those delays and other observations are consistent with the model. However, at the lowest densities, n,/nG, -0.35, small delays between the responses in the two divertors, and changes in the response of the pedestal thermal energy to ELM events, indicate that additional factors including electron conduction in the SOL, the pre-ELM condition of the divertor plasma, and the ratio of ELM instability duration to SOL transit time, may be playing a role. The results show that understanding the response of the SOL and divertor plasmas to ELMs, for various pre-ELM conditions, is just as important to predicting the effect of ELM pulses on the target surfaces of future devices as is predicting the characteristics of the ELM perturbation of the core plasma....

IAEA-CN-116/EX/10-6Ra This is a preprint of a paper intended for presentation at a scientific meeting. Because of the provisional nature of its content and since changes of substance or detail may have to be made before publication, the preprint is made available on the understanding that it will not be cited in the literature or in any way be reproduced in its present form. The views expressed and the statements made remain the responsibility of the named author(s); the views do not necessarily reflect those of the government of the designating Member State(s) or of the designating organization(s). In particular, neither the IAEA nor any other organization or body sponsoring this meeting can be held responsible for any material reproduced in this preprint.

High repetition rate injection of deuterium pellets from the low-field side (LFS) of the DIII-D tokamak is shown to trigger high-frequency edge-localized modes (ELMs) at up to 12× the low natural ELM frequency in H-mode deuterium plasmas designed to match the ITER baseline configuration in shape, normalized beta, and input power just above the H-mode threshold. The pellet size, velocity, and injection location were chosen to limit penetration to the outer 10% of the plasma. The resulting perturbations to the plasma density and energy confinement time are thus minimal (<10%). The triggered ELMs occur at much lower normalized pedestal pressure than the natural ELMs, suggesting that the pellet injection excites a localized high-n instability. Triggered ELMs produce up to 12× lower energy and particle fluxes to the divertor, and result in a strong decrease in plasma core impurity density. These results show for the first time that shallow, LFS pellet injection can dramatically accelerate the ELM cycle and reduce ELM energy fluxes on plasma facing components, and is a viable technique for real-time control of ELMs in ITER.

Molecular deuterium fluxes into the edge of deuterium-fuelled L-mode discharges are measured using passive visible spectroscopy of D 2 emission lines. Comparison with the atomic deuterium influx measured using D α emission suggests that a significant fraction of the plasma edge fuelling from the walls is in the form of D 2 . Molecular deuterium flux is observed in both the divertor and main chamber regions but is roughly a factor 100 smaller near the inner main chamber wall and roughly a factor 1000 smaller near the outer main chamber wall, when compared with the divertor region. Very high levels of molecular D 2 excitation are measured, with ground state D 2 rotational population temperatures T rot up to 10 000 K and vibrational population temperatures T vib up to 30 000 K. Comparisons between rotational population temperatures and the local electron density suggest that T rot can be used as a reasonably good indicator of electron density in the D 2 line emission region. In recombining, detached divertor operation, estimates of the enhanced volume recombination rate due to the presence of vibrationally-excited D 2 suggest that the effect of molecular-assisted volume recombination could be comparable in magnitude to that of normal D + volume recombination (EIR).

Deuterium pellets have been injected into plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak from the inner wall, top, and outer midplane port locations to investigate fuelling efficiency, mass deposition and interaction with edge localized modes (ELMs). Pellets injected from the outer midplane port (low field side (LFS)) show a large discrepancy in the mass deposition profile and fuelling efficiency from conventional pellet ablation theory, while the penetration depth compares favourably with theory. The mass deposition from pellets injected from inner wall and top locations is deeper than expected from ablation theory. The profile measurements indicate that pellet mass is deposited inside the measured penetration radius, thus verifying that a drift of the pellet ablatant is occurring in the major radius direction during the toroidal symmetrization process. The scaling of the measured drift magnitude in DIII-D is found to depend strongly on the pellet size and plasma pedestal temperature. Extrapolation to a burning plasma configuration on ITER is favourable for inner wall pellet fuel deposition depth well beyond the separatrix. Pellets injected into H-mode plasmas from all locations trigger ELMs with much larger ELM events induced by the outside midplane injected pellets. This suggests that the LFS is more sensitive to ELM triggering and may be the preferred location to inject very small pellets to trigger frequent small ELMs and thus minimize ELM induced damage to the divertor material surfaces.