Since the first H-mode discharges in 2010, the duration of the H-mode state has been extended and a significantly wider operational window of plasma parameters has been attained. Using a second neutral beam (NB) source and improved tuning of equilibrium configuration with real-time plasma control, a stored energy of W tot ∼ 450 kJ has been achieved with a corresponding energy confinement time of τ E ∼ 163 ms. Recent discharges, produced in the fall of 2012, have reached plasma β N up to 2.9 and surpassed the n = 1 ideal no-wall stability limit computed for H-mode pressure profiles, which is one of the key threshold parameters defining advanced tokamak operation. Typical H-mode discharges were operated with a plasma current of 600 kA at a toroidal magnetic field B T = 2 T. L-H transitions were obtained with 0.8-3.0 MW of NB injection power in both single-and double-null configurations, with H-mode durations up to ∼15 s at 600 kA of plasma current. The measured power threshold as a function of lineaveraged density showed a roll-over with a minimum value of ∼0.8 MW at ne ∼ 2×10 19 m −3 . Several edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques during H-mode were examined with successful results including resonant magnetic perturbation, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogging and electron cyclotron current drive injection into the pedestal region. We observed various ELM responses, i.e. suppression or mitigation, depending on the relative phase of in-vessel control coil currents. In particular, with the 90 • phase of the n = 1 RMP as the most resonant configuration, a complete suppression of type-I ELMs was demonstrated. In addition, fast vertical jogging of the plasma column was also observed to be effective in ELM pace-making. SMBI-mitigated ELMs, a state of mitigated ELMs, were sustained for a few tens of ELM periods. A simple cellular automata ('sand-pile') model predicted that shallow deposition near the pedestal foot induced small-sized high-frequency ELMs, leading to the mitigation of large ELMs. In addition to the ELM control experiments, various physics topics were explored focusing on ITER-relevant physics issues such as the alteration of toroidal rotation caused by both electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and externally applied 3D fields, and the observed rotation drop by ECRH in NB-heated plasmas was investigated in terms of either a reversal of the turbulence-driven residual stress due to the transition of ion temperature gradient to trapped electron mode turbulence or neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque by the internal kink mode. The suppression of runaway electrons using massive gas injection of deuterium showed that runaway electrons were avoided only below 3 T in KSTAR. Operation in 2013 is expected to routinely exceed the n = 1 ideal MHD no-wall stability boundary in the long-pulse H-mode ( 10 s) by applying real-time shaping control, enabling n = 1 resistive wall mode active control studies. In addition, intensive works for ELM mitigation, ELM dynamics, toroidal ro...

Since the successful first plasma generation in the middle of 2008, three experimental campaigns were successfully made for the KSTAR device, accompanied with a necessary upgrade in the power supply, heating, wall-conditioning and diagnostic systems. KSTAR was operated with the toroidal magnetic field up to 3.6 T and the circular and shaped plasmas with current up to 700 kA and pulse length of 7 s, have been achieved with limited capacity of PF magnet power supplies. The mission of the KSTAR experimental program is to achieve steady-state operations with high performance plasmas relevant to ITER and future reactors. The first phase (2008–2012) of operation of KSTAR is dedicated to the development of operational capabilities for a super-conducting device with relatively short pulse. Development of start-up scenario for a super-conducting tokamak and the understanding of magnetic field errors on start-up are one of the important issues to be resolved. Some specific operation techniques for a super-conducting device are also developed and tested. The second harmonic pre-ionization with 84 and 110 GHz gyrotrons is an example. Various parameters have been scanned to optimize the pre-ionization. Another example is the ICRF wall conditioning (ICWC), which was routinely applied during the shot to shot interval. The plasma operation window has been extended in terms of plasma beta and stability boundary. The achievement of high confinement mode was made in the last campaign with the first neutral beam injector and good wall conditioning. Plasma control has been applied in shape and position control and now a preliminary kinetic control scheme is being applied including plasma current and density. Advanced control schemes will be developed and tested in future operations including active profiles, heating and current drives and control coil-driven magnetic perturbation.

A new electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics system was installed for the Second Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) campaign. The new ECE system consists of an ECE collecting optics system, an overmode circular corrugated waveguide system, and 48 channel heterodyne radiometer with the frequency range of 110-162 GHz. During the 2 T operation of the KSTAR tokamak, the electron temperatures as well as its radial profiles at the high field side were measured and sawtooth phenomena were also observed. We also discuss the effect of a window on in situ calibration.

A multichannel reflectometry with an imaging optical system is under development for the measurement of the electron density fluctuations in the Large Helical Device (LHD). The right-hand cutoff layer is utilized as a reflection surface. The angle of an ellipsoidal mirror installed inside the vacuum chamber is remotely adjustable with the ultrasonic motor in order to optimize the illumination angle for the wider range of the plasma parameters. An oscillation due to density fluctuation was observed using the microwave imaging reflectometry for the first time in LHD plasma experiment.

Articles you may be interested inUsing X-mode L, R and O-mode reflectometry cutoffs to measure scrape-off-layer density profiles for upgraded ORNL reflectometer on NSTX-Ua) Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 11D815 (2014); 10.1063/1.4889739 Real-time reflectometry measurement validation in H-mode regimes for plasma position controla) Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 10D926 (2010); 10.1063/1.3499640 Application of reflectometry power flow for magnetic field pitch angle measurements in tokamak plasmas (invited)a) Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 10F102 (2008); 10.1063/1.2969075 Measurement of edge density profiles of Large Helical Device plasmas using an ultrashort-pulse reflectometer Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 056106 (2008); 10.1063/1.2917579 Radial wave number spectrum of density fluctuations deduced from reflectometry phase signals Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 1501 (2003);An analytical model of fluctuation reflectometry is developed, which is capable of handling the plasma profiles of arbitrary shape and curvature. The experimental profiles are piece-wise approximated by the functions, which allow for the integration of the full-wave O-mode equation. The model is applied to the reflectometry of the JT-60U tokamak plasma to provide a preliminary estimation of the fluctuation amplitude and spectral width.

Three-dimensional (3D) microwave imaging reflectometry has been developed in the large helical device to visualize fluctuating reflection surface which is caused by the density fluctuations. The plasma is illuminated by the probe wave with four frequencies, which correspond to four radial positions. The imaging optics makes the image of cut-off surface onto the 2D (7 × 7 channels) horn antenna mixer arrays. Multi-channel receivers have been also developed using micro-strip-line technology to handle many channels at reasonable cost. This system is first applied to observe the edge harmonic oscillation (EHO), which is an MHD mode with many harmonics that appears in the edge plasma. A narrow structure along field lines is observed during EHO.

The results of an analytical treatment of the time-dependent 2D full-wave equation are presented here for the case of ultra-short pulse (USP) reflectometry. We consider several models of the plasma geometry, namely linear and nonlinear slab models, as well as a 2D plasma density profile with cylindrical symmetry. The latter model is more realistic when compared to the 1D stratified plasma models previously employed in all the analytical, and most numerical, treatments, since the plasma in fusion toroidal devices, mirror machines and plasma processing chambers can often be considered axially symmetric on the scale relevant to microwave reflectometry.Based on the results of analytical modelling, a signal record analysis method of profile reconstruction is proposed. The method has the advantage of using raw signal records instead of poorly localized frequency modes, which makes it robust for the profile measurements using USP reflectometry.

An optics system for microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) in the Large Helical Device (LHD) was newly developed to optimize the performance of the two-dimensional microwave receiver array. Reflected microwaves from the plasma and the first local oscillator (LO) wave are transmitted to the receiver array via the optics from the front. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculation was used to design the ellipsoidal or hyperboloidal shapes of the quasi-optical mirrors. It is confirmed that the LO beam in the constructed system covers the receiver antenna aperture area as intended. The S/N ratios of the signals are improved with this optimized optics system from those in the previous system. Understanding confinement and transport in magnetically confined plasmas is one of the important issues for realizing fusion reactor. Microscale instabilities such as turbulence are considered to activate anomalous transport. Microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) would be a sensitive fluctuation diagnostics in turbulent plasmas. MIR is a multi-receiver reflectometry that can potentially visualize the 3-D structures of electron density fluctuations by projecting images of the cutoff surfaces onto the image focal plane [1].In the Large Helical Device (LHD), a prototype MIR system with three commercial horn antennas, has successfully received scattered microwaves from plasmas [2,3]. The received microwaves were transmitted from the receiver antenna to mixer components remote from the diagnostic port by oversized waveguides. In a full-scale imaging system, however, it is difficult to use waveguides to transmit received signals from dozens of receiver channels. This signal transmission problem was solved by a newly developed 2-D horn-antenna mixer array (HMA), which consists of arrayed quasi-optical antenna-mixers covered with pyramidal horn apertures [4,5]. This HMA was developed to down-convert received microwaves into intermediate frequency (IF) signals by Schottky diodes, which are placed inside each of the HMA apertures. After downconversion, the signal handling becomes very convenient, since printed circuit boards or ordinary coaxial cables can be used for amplification, filtering, or transmission. This paper presents the methodology for mixing the received microwave signal with the first local oscillator (LO) signal for down-conversion. Our technique is to cast the LO microwave (55.8 GHz) from the front of the HMA aperture together with the received microwave signals. The status of the optics system for LO wave projection is also described.The newly designed optics system for MIR in LHD is illustrated in Fig. 1. It consists of aluminum alloy mirrors