No abstract

The inboard limiters for ITER were initially designed on the assumption that the parallel heat flux density in the scrape-off layer (SOL) could be approximated by a single exponential with decay length λq. This assumption was found not to be adequate in 2012, when infra-red (IR) thermography measurements on the inner column during JET limiter discharges clearly revealed the presence of a narrow heat flux channel adjacent to the last closed flux surface. This near-SOL decay occurs with λq ∼ few mm, much shorter than the main SOL λq, and can raise the heat flux at the limiter apex a factor up to ∼4 above the value expected from a single, broader exponential. The original logarithmically shaped ITER inner wall first wall panels (FWPs) would be unsuited to handling the power loads produced by such a narrow feature. A multi-machine study involving the C-Mod, COMPASS, DIII-D and TCV tokamaks, employing inner wall IR measurements and/or inner wall reciprocating probes, was initiated to investigate the narrow limiter SOL heat flux channel. This paper describes the new results which have provided an experimental database for the narrow feature and presents an ITER inner wall FWP toroidal shape optimized for a double-exponential profile with λq = 4 (narrow feature) and 50 mm (main-SOL), the latter also derived from a separate multi-machine database constituted recently within the International Tokamak Physics Activity. It is shown that the new shape allows the power handling capability of the original shape design to be completely recovered for a wide variety of limiter start-up equilibria in the presence of a narrow feature, even taking assembly tolerances into account. It is, moreover, further shown that the new shape has the interesting property of both mitigating the impact of the narrow feature and resulting in only a very modest increase in heat load, compared to the current design, if the narrow feature is not eventually found on ITER.

Asymmetrical disruptions may occur during ITER operation and they may be accompanied by large sideways forces and rotation of the asymmetry. This is of particular concern because resonance of the rotating asymmetry with the natural frequencies of the vacuum vessel (and other in-vessel components) could lead to large dynamic amplification of the forces. A significant fraction of non-mitigated JET disruptions have toroidally asymmetric currents that flow partially inside the plasma and partially inside the surrounding vacuum vessel ("wall"). The toroidal asymmetries (otherwise known as appearance of 3-D structures) are clearly visible in the plasma current (I p) and the first plasma current moments. For the first time we present here the asymmetries in toroidal flux measured by the diamagnetic loops and also propose a physical interpretation. The presented data covers the period of JET operation with C-wall (JET-C from 2005 until late 2009) and with ITER-like wall (JET-ILW from 2011 until late 2014), during which pickup coil and saddle loop data at four toroidally orthogonal

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 58 (2016) 074005 (11pp) q imp mm, thus consolidating the 50 mm width used to optimize the FW panel toroidal shape.

A new system of probes was recently installed in the divertor of tokamak COMPASS in order to investigate the ELM energy density with high spatial and temporal resolution. The new system consists of two arrays of rooftop-shaped Langmuir probes (LPs) used to measure the floating potential or the ion saturation current density and one array of Ball-pen probes (BPPs) used to measure the plasma potential with a spatial resolution of ~3.5 mm. The combination of floating BPPs and LPs yields the electron temperature with microsecond temporal resolution. We report on the design of the new divertor probe arrays and first results of electron temperature profile measurements in ELMy Hmode and L-mode. We also present comparative measurements of the parallel heat flux using the new probe arrays and fast infrared termography (IR) data during L-mode with excellent agreement between both techniques using a heat power transmission coefficient γ = 7. The ELM energy density  || was measured during a set of NBI assisted ELMy H-mode discharges. The peak values of  || were compared with those predicted by model and with experimental data from JET, AUG and MAST with a good agreement.