QUEST focuses on the steady state operation of the spherical tokamak by controlled PWI and electron Bernstein wave current drive. One of the main purposes of QUEST is an achievement of long duration discharge with MW-class injected power. As the result, QUEST should be operated in the challenging region on heat and particle handling. To do the particle handling, high temperature all metal wall up to 623 K and closed divertors are planned, which is to realize the steady-state operation under recycling ratio, R = 1. This is a dispensable check to DEMO, because wall pumping should be avoided as possible in the view of tritium retention. The QUEST project will be developed in increment step such as, I. low β steady state operation in limiter configuration, II. low β steady state operation in divertor configuration, III. relatively high β steady state operation in closed divertor configuration. Phase I in the project corresponds to these two years, and final goal of phase I is to make full current drive plasma up to 20 kA. Closed divertor will be designed and tested in the Phase II. QUEST is running from Oct., 2008 and the first results are introduced.
Visible imaging measurement using a fast camera in conjunction with a gas puff was demonstrated in the GAMMA 10 tandem mirror. In order to image plasma behavior on the periphery, a hydrogen gas puff in the bottom of the vacuum chamber near the GAMMA 10 central-cell was used. Without the gas puff the light emission was not sufficiently bright, and SN ratio is not good. By using the gas puff, the light emission could be clearly observed, and a 5-6 kHz vibration of the plasma column was confirmed. This motion is most likely plasma rotation due to the electron drift wave and E r × B drift. These results show that the fast camera used in conjunction with a gas puff is a promising candidate for the measurement of peripheral plasma behavior even in low-density mirror plasmas.
Following the 19th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (Lyon, 2002), (1) three-time progress in the formation of ion-confining potential heights ϕc including a record of 2.1 kV in comparison to those attained 1992–2002 is achieved for tandem-mirror plasmas in the hot-ion mode with ion temperatures of several kiloelectronvolts. (2) The advance in the potential formation gives the bases for finding the remarkable effects of radially produced shear of electric fields Er, or non-uniform sheared plasma rotation on the suppression of intermittent vortex-like turbulent fluctuations. (i) Such a shear effect is visually highlighted by x-ray tomography diagnostics; that is, spatially and temporally intermittent vortex-like fluctuated structures are clearly observed as two-dimensionally reconstructed visual structures for the first time in kiloelectronvolt order ion-cyclotron heated plasmas having a weak shear in GAMMA 10. (ii) However, during the application of plug electron-cyclotron heatings (ECH), the associated potential rise produces a stronger shear (dEr/dr = several 10 kV m−2) resulting in the disappearance of such intermittent turbulent vortices with plasma confinement improvement. X-ray observations also show elongation of a vortex structure from a circular into an ellipsoidal shape, as depicted in H-mode theories, with an outward shift. (3) For the physics interpretations and control of such potential and the associated shear formation, the validity of our proposed theory of the potential formation is extensionally tested under the conditions with auxiliary heating. The data described above fit well to the extended surfaces calculated from our proposed consolidated theory of the strong ECH theory (plateau formation) with Pastukhov's theory on energy confinement.
Advances in potential formation have led to remarkable discoveries on the effects of radial electric field distribution on turbulence suppression and transverse loss reduction. In order to study the improvement in plasma confinement because of the formation of plasma confinement potential, we constructed a multi-channel microwave interferometer system that can measure the density and density fluctuation radial profiles in a single plasma shot. We obtained clear density fluctuation suppression by the formation of the plasma confinement potential. Therefore, we have a powerful diagnostic tool with which to study the improvement in plasma confinement.
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