Demonstrating improved confinement of energetic ions is one of the key goals of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. In the past campaigns, measuring confined fast ions has proven to be challenging. Future deuterium campaigns would open up the option of using fusion-produced neutrons to indirectly observe confined fast ions. There are two neutron populations: 2.45 MeV neutrons from thermonuclear and beam-target fusion, and 14.1 MeV neutrons from DT reactions between tritium fusion products and bulk deuterium. The 14.1 MeV neutron signal can be measured using a scintillating fiber neutron detector, whereas the overall neutron rate is monitored by common radiation safety detectors, for instance fission chambers. The fusion rates are dependent on the slowing-down distribution of the deuterium and tritium ions, which in turn depend on the magnetic configuration via fast ion orbits. In this work, we investigate the effect of magnetic configuration on neutron production rates in W7-X. The neutral beam injection, beam and triton slowing-down distributions, and the fusion reactivity are simulated with the ASCOT suite of codes. The results indicate that the magnetic configuration has only a small effect on the production of 2.45 MeV neutrons from DD fusion and, particularly, on the 14.1 MeV neutron production rates. Despite triton losses of up to 50 %, the amount of 14.1 MeV neutrons produced might be sufficient for a time-resolved detection using a scintillating fiber detector, although only in high-performance discharges.

After completing the main construction phase of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and successfully commissioning the device, first plasma operation started at the end of 2015. Integral commissioning of plasma start-up and operation using electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and an extensive set of plasma diagnostics have been completed, allowing initial physics studies during the first operational campaign. Both in helium and hydrogen, plasma breakdown was easily achieved. Gaining experience with plasma vessel conditioning, discharge lengths could be extended gradually. Eventually, discharges lasted up to 6 s, reaching an injected energy of 4 MJ, which is twice the limit originally agreed for the limiter configuration employed during the first operational campaign. At power levels of 4 MW central electron densities reached 3  ×  1019 m−3, central electron temperatures reached values of 7 keV and ion temperatures reached just above 2 keV. Important physics studies during this first operational phase include a first assessment of power balance and energy confinement, ECRH power deposition experiments, 2nd harmonic O-mode ECRH using multi-pass absorption, and current drive experiments using electron cyclotron current drive. As in many plasma discharges the electron temperature exceeds the ion temperature significantly, these plasmas are governed by core electron root confinement showing a strong positive electric field in the plasma centre.

The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) optimized stellarator fusion experiment, which went into operation in 2015, has been operating since 2017 with an un-cooled modular graphite divertor. This allowed first divertor physics studies to be performed at pulse energies up to 80 MJ, as opposed to 4 MJ in the first operation phase, where five inboard limiters were installed instead of a divertor. This, and a number of other upgrades to the device capabilities, allowed extension into regimes of higher plasma density, heating power, and performance overall, e.g. setting a new stellarator world record triple product. The paper focuses on the first physics studies of how the island divertor works. The plasma heat loads arrive to a very high degree on the divertor plates, with only minor heat loads seen on other components, in particular baffle structures built in to aid neutral compression. The strike line shapes and locations change significantly from one magnetic configuration to another, in very much the same way that codes had predicted they would. Strike-line widths are as large as 10 cm, and the wetted areas also large, up to about 1.5 m 2 , which bodes well for future operation phases. Peak local heat loads onto the divertor were in general benign and project below the 10 MW/m 2 limit of the future water-cooled divertor when operated with 10 MW of heating power, with the exception of low-density attached operation in the high-iota Submitted to Nuclear Fusion configuration. The most notable result was the complete (in all 10 divertor units) heat-flux detachment obtained at highdensity operation in hydrogen.

We report on the first experimental verification of theoretically predicted multiple bundles of counter-streaming plasma flows in the island-divertor scrape-off layer (SOL) of the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. In the standard toroidal field direction (counter-clockwise when looking from the top) experiments, the overall structure of the SOL flows, such as flow directions, the number of flow bundles and the magnitude of the flow velocities, are consistent with numerical predictions obtained with EMC3-EIRENE. However, the modelling does not predict changes of the flow patterns with reversal of the magnetic field direction, which are experimentally observed. This indicates that additional relevant physics, such as particle drifts, will need to be incorporated into the numerical model to better describe the whole stellarator scrape-off layer behaviour.

The island divertor concept is an innovative and promising idea to handle heat and particle exhaust in stellarators. At the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator, this divertor concept plays a central role in the device mission to demonstrate reactor relevant plasma confinement for steady-state time scales of up to 30 minutes in the high-performance campaign (OP2) starting in 2022. During the recently concluded first campaign with the inertially cooled island divertor, a large step in the experimental qualification of this divertor concept has been made. In discharges heated with Electron Cylotron Resonance Heating of 5−6 MW, central densities in the range of 0.7−1.2×10 20 m −3 have been reached in combination with full divertor heat flux detachment. Also, significant neutral gas pressures and neutral compression ratios were shown for the first time in combination with reduced divertor particle flux. The divertor heat loads drop by an order of magnitude from > 5 MW m −2 to below 0.5 MW m −2 with increasing density, and substantial compression of neutrals reaching neutral pressure in the subdivertor volume of > 6.0 × 10 −4 mbar was seen. These elevated neutral pressure levels can be obtained and maintained with an up to 80% reduction of the particle fluxes onto the divertor target tiles. This discharge scenario was held stably detached for up to 28 seconds, which is equivalent to several hundred energy confinement times τ E and longer than the time scales for current relaxation. No impurity accumulation was seen Detachment in the island divertor at W7-X 2 at constant Z ef f ≈ 1.5 and the stored energy stayed constant at levels of W dia > 600 kJ. The level of neutral pressure and compression reached in this scenario extrapolates well to the steady-state particle exhaust requirements for high-performance steadystate operation in OP2, in which the fully actively cooled High-Heat-Flux divertor will be available. An overview of this recently discovered divertor regime is given and the status of the physics understanding based on modeling of these regimes with the EMC3-EIRENE code is presented.

Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), the largest advanced stellarator, is built to demonstrate high power, high performance quasi-continuous operation. Therefore, in the recent campaign, experiments were performed to prepare for long pulse operation, addressing three critical issues: the development of stable detachment, control of the heat and particle exhaust, and the impact of leading edges on plasma performance. The heat and particle exhaust in W7-X is realized with the help of an island divertor, which utilizes large magnetic islands at the plasma boundary. This concept shows very efficient heat flux spreading and favourable scaling with input power. Experiments performed to overload leading edges showed that the island divertor yields good impurity screening. A highlight of the recent campaign was a robust detachment scenario, which allowed reducing power loads even by a factor of ten. At the same time, neutral pressures at the pumping gap entrance yielded the particle removal rate close to the values required for stable density control in steady-state operation.

Radiative power exhaust by impurity seeding was demonstrated for the first time in island divertor configurations at the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. Feasibility of stable plasma operation was shown during seeding with both neon (Ne) and nitrogen (N 2 ). High radiative power losses (≥80%) were found to reduce the divertor heat loads globally by 2/3 with both seeding gases injected at a single toroidal location into one of five magnetic islands. Heat flux detachment was achieved for the price of a loss of (≥-15%) in the stored energy. Ne seeding allows for sustained enhancement of edge radiation with a very slow decay of line emission of several tens of seconds after the end of the injection indicating a high recycling of this noble gas at the carbon main plasma facing components. In N 2 seeded discharges it is shown that a response of line emission and plasma parameters is in correlation to the puff duration which indicates a higher level of absorption of this seeding gas in the wall. Continuous N 2 seeding results in global cooling of the scrape-off layer (SOL) and decay of radiation over several seconds after the injection. Damping of counter-streaming SOL flows, and divertor particle fluxes induced by Ne and N 2 seeding have been measured and provide evidence for a reduction of the convective part of the divertor heat fluxes. Losses in density in response to seeding can be compensated by feedback controlled divertor fueling. The controlled reduction of heat fluxes within this complex 3D edge island geometry is a very promising finding concerning detachment control in a future all-metal divertor.

In the last decade, Coherence Imaging Spectroscopy (CIS) has shown distinctive results in measuring ion flow velocities in the edge of magnetically confined plasma devices. Its 2D spatially resolved measurement capabilities and its high optical throughput are ideal for investigating the impurity behavior in the complex 3D magnetic island topology edge of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X). However, a highly precise and stable calibration method is required for a reliable diagnostic operation. A new level of precision and stability has been achieved for the two CIS systems installed at W7-X with the use of a new calibration source, a continuous tunable laser commercially available only since 2015. A specific prototype model was successfully adapted to the challenging requirements of W7-X, granting high accuracy (±0.01 pm) and flexibility (spectral range: 450-650 nm) in the wavelength calibration required for measuring low-Z impurity ion flow velocities. These features opened up new investigation possibilities on temperature stability and wavelength response of the CIS components, allowing to fully characterize and validate the W7-X systems. The CIS diagnostic was operational throughout the last W7-X experimental campaign. Measured velocities on the order of ∼20-30 km/s were observed, corroborated by comparisons to measurements with Mach probes.