A non-perturbative magnetohydrodynamic-kinetic hybrid formulation is developed and implemented into the MARS-K code [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 15, 112503 (2008)] that takes into account the anisotropy and asymmetry [Graves et al., Nature Commun. 3, 624 (2012)] of the equilibrium distribution of energetic particles (EPs) in particle pitch angle space, as well as first order finite orbit width (FOW) corrections for both passing and trapped EPs. Anisotropic models, which affect both the adiabatic and non-adiabatic drift kinetic energy contributions, are implemented for both neutral beam injection and ion cyclotron resonant heating induced EPs. The first order FOW correction does not contribute to the precessional drift resonance of trapped particles, but generally remains finite for the bounce and transit resonance contributions, as well as for the adiabatic contributions from asymmetrically distributed passing particles. Numerical results for a 9MA steady state ITER plasma suggest that (i) both the anisotropy and FOW effects can be important for the resistive wall mode stability in ITER plasmas; and (ii) the non-perturbative approach predicts less kinetic stabilization of the mode, than the perturbative approach, in the presence of anisotropy and FOW effects for the EPs. The latter may partially be related to the modification of the eigenfunction of the mode by the drift kinetic effects. [http://dx.

Key plasma physics and real-time control elements needed for robustly stable operation of high fusion power discharges in ITER have been demonstrated in US fusion research. Optimization of the current density profile has enabled passively stable operation without n " 1 tearing modes in discharges simulating ITER's baseline scenario with zero external torque. Stable rampdown of the discharge has been achieved with ITER-like scaled current ramp rates, while maintaining an X-point configuration. Significant advances have been made toward real-time prediction of disruptions: machine learning techniques for prediction of disruptions have achieved 90% accuracy in offline analysis, and direct probing of ideal and resistive plasma stability using 3D magnetic perturbations has shown a rising plasma response before the onset of a tearing mode. Active stability control contributes to prevention of disruptions, including direct stabilization of resistive-wall kink modes in high-β discharges, forced rotation of magnetic islands to prevent wall locking, and localized heating/current drive to shrink the islands. These elements are being integrated into stable operating scenarios and a new event-handling system for off-normal events in order to develop the physics basis and techniques for robust control in ITER.

Validating the calculations of kinetic resistive wall mode (RWM) stability is important for confidently predicting RWM stable operating regions in ITER and other high performance tokamaks for disruption avoidance. Benchmarking the calculations of the Magnetohydrodynamic Resistive Spectrum-Kinetic (MARS-K) [Y. Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 15, 112503 (2008)], Modification to Ideal Stability by Kinetic effects (MISK) [B. Hu et al., Phys. Plasmas 12, 057301 (2005)], and Perturbed Equilibrium Nonambipolar Transport (PENT) [N. Logan et al., Phys.Plasmas 20, 122507 (2013)] codes for two Solov'ev analytical equilibria and a projected ITER equilibrium has demonstrated good agreement between the codes. The important particle frequencies, the frequency resonance energy integral in which they are used, the marginally stable eigenfunctions, perturbed Lagrangians, and fluid growth rates are all generally consistent between the codes. The most important kinetic effect at low rotation is the resonance between the mode rotation and the trapped thermal particle's precession drift, and MARS-K, MISK, and PENT show good agreement in this term. The different ways the rational surface contribution was treated historically in the codes is identified as a source of disagreement in the bounce and transit resonance terms at higher plasma rotation. Calculations from all of the codes support the present understanding that RWM stability can be increased by kinetic effects at low rotation through precession drift resonance and at high rotation by bounce and transit resonances, while intermediate rotation can remain susceptible to instability. The applicability of benchmarked kinetic stability calculations to experimental results is demonstrated by the prediction of MISK calculations of near marginal growth rates for experimental marginal stability points from the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) [M. Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)]. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.