Abstract. Runaway electrons represent a serious problem for the reliable operation of the future experimental tokamak ITER. Due to the multiplication factor of exp(50) in the avalanche even a few seed runaway electrons will result in a beam of high energetic electrons that is able to damage the machine. Thus suppression of runaway electrons is a task of high importance, for which reason we present here a systematic study of runaway electrons following massive gas injection in TEXTOR. Argon injection can cause generation of runaways carrying up to 30% of the initial plasma current, while disruptions triggered by injection of helium or of mixtures of argon (5, 10, 20%) with deuterium are runaway free. Disruptions caused by argon injection finally become runaway free for very large amounts of injected atoms. The appearance/absence of runaway electrons is related to the fraction of atoms delivered to the plasma center. This so called mixing efficiency is deduced from a 0D model of the current quench. The estimated mixing efficiency is: 3% for argon, 15% for an argon/deuterium mixture and about 40% for helium. A low mixing efficiency of high-Z impurities can have a strong implication for the design of the disruption mitigation system for ITER. However, a quantitative prediction requires a better understanding of the mixing mechanism.

Extensive analysis of disruptions in JET has helped advance the understanding of trends of disruption-generated runaway electrons. Tomographic reconstruction of the soft x-ray emission has made possible a detailed observation of the magnetic flux geometry evolution during disruptions. With the aid of soft and hard x-ray diagnostics runaway electrons have been detected at the very beginning of disruptions. A study of runaway electron parameters has shown that an approximate upper bound for the conversion efficiency of pre-disruptive plasma currents into runaways is about 60% over a wide range of plasma currents in JET. Runaway generation has been simulated with a test particle model in order to verify the results of experimental data analysis and to obtain the background for extrapolation of the existing results onto larger devices such as ITER. It was found that close agreement between the modelling results and experimental data could be achieved if in the calculations the post-disruption plasma electron temperature was assumed equal to 10 eV and if the plasma column geometry evolution is taken into account in calculations. The experimental trends and numerical simulations show that runaway electrons are a critical issue for ITER and, therefore, the development of mitigation methods, which suppress runaway generation, is an essential task.

In present day tokamaks runaway electrons can be confined long enough to gain energies in the order of several tens of megaelectron volts. At these energies synchrotron radiation is emitted in the infrared wavelength range which can easily be detected by thermographic cameras. The spectral features of this synchrotron radiation are reviewed. On TEXTOR-94 a diagnostic exploiting this synchrotron radiation has been developed and is presented here. It is shown how to deduce the runaway parameters like runaway energy, pitch angle, runaway current and beam radius from the measurements. Based on the experience at TEXTOR-94 the feasibility of a similar synchrotron diagnostic on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is discussed. The maximum emission is expected in the wavelength range from 1-5 m. A beam of 10 MeV runaway electrons with a current of about 15 kA will already be detectable.

Controlled experiments on the suppression of the m/n = 2/1 tearing mode with electron cyclotron heating and current drive in TEXTOR are reported. The mode was produced reproducibly by an externally applied rotating perturbation field, allowing a systematic study of its suppression. Heating inside the island of the mode is shown to be the dominant suppression mechanism in these experiments. An extrapolation of these findings to ITER indicates that the projected system for suppression of the tearing mode could be significantly more effective than present estimates indicate, which only consider the effect of the current drive but not of the heating inside the island.

An experimental study of the generation of runaway electrons in TEXTOR has been performed. From the infrared synchrotron radiation emitted by relativistic electrons, the number of runaway electrons can be obtained as a function of time. In low density discharges (ne < 1 × 1019 cm-3) runaways are created throughout the discharge and not predominantly in-the startup phase, From the exponential increase in the runaway population and the ongoing runaway production after the density is increased, it is concluded that the secondary generation, i.e. the creation of runaways through close collisions of already existing runaways with thermal electrons, provides an essential contribution to the runaway production. The effective avalanche time of this secondary process is determined to be teff = 0.9 ± 0.2 s

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Runaway electrons generated during ITER disruptions are of concern for the integrity of the plasma facing components. It is expected that a power of up to 8 GW is exposed to ITER PFCs. We present in this article observations from JET and TEXTOR on the generation of runaways and the heat load deposition. Suppression techniques like massive gas injection and resonant magnetic perturbations are discussed.

In a tokamak plasma the maximum achievable density is limited. A too high density will result in a violent end of a discharge. Two types of density limit disruption can be distinguished: (a) impure and moderately heated discharges, if the radiative power exceeds the input power, (b) clean, auxiliary heated discharges, where the Greenwald limit is encountered. It has been found that in TEXTOR-94 these two density limits differ by the radiative instability in the plasma boundary, which preceeds the disruption. A symmetric radiative mantle and a detachment are observed prior to the first type, while the Greenwald limit has a MARFE precursor. Control of the impurity content, edge and recycling properties prevents the growth of the MARFE and makes it possible to exceed the Greenwald limit in TEXTOR-94 by more than a factor of 2. High densities have been obtained by means of normal gas feed. Maximum central densities of ne(0) = 1.3 × 1020 m-3 have been obtained. The maximum achievable density scales with the input power and plasma current. Non-disruptive discharges, with a stationary (t > 25 τE) density a factor of 1.93 above the Greenwald limit have been produced in L mode. The radiative losses and impurity concentration have been maintained at a relatively low level during the entire high density phase.