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The position of passive stabilisation has been optimised for the low aspect ratio tokamak ST40. We find that passive stabilisation is most effective when conductors are placed near the plasma’s x-point, and the combined effect of having both inboard and outboard passive stabilisation significantly reduces the vertical instability growth rate. The growth rate can be further decreased by cooling the passive conductors down to 80 K. Two concepts for passive stabilisation are considered, passive plates and passive coils, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. Both concepts involve connecting the upper and lower conductors in an ‘anti-symmetric’ manner, which prevents large currents from being induced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tokamak Energy Ltd, UK, is developing spherical tokamaks using high temperature superconductor magnets as a possible route to fusion power using relatively small devices. We present an overview of the development programme including details of the enabling technologies, the key modelling methods and results, and the remaining challenges on the path to compact fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fusion alpha and beam ion with steady-state power loads in all four main operating scenarios of ITER have been evaluated by the ASCOT code. For this purpose, high-fidelity magnetic backgrounds were reconstructed, taking into account even the internal structure of the ferritic inserts and tritium breeding modules (TBM). The beam ions were found to be almost perfectly confined in all scenarios, and only the so-called hybrid scenario featured alpha loads reaching 0.5 MW due to its more triangular plasma. The TBMs were not found to jeopardize the alpha confinement, nor cause any hot spots. Including plasma response did not bring dramatic changes to the load. The ELM control coils (ECC) were simulated in the baseline scenario and found to seriously deteriorate even the beam confinement. However, the edge perturbation in this case is so large that the sources have to be re-evaluated with plasma profiles that take into account the ECC perturbation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess the effect of the European design of the pebble-bed helium-cooled test blanket modules (TBM) on fast ion power loads on ITER material surfaces. For this purpose, the effect of not only the TBMs but also the ferritic inserts (FI), used for mitigating the toroidal field ripple, were included in unprecedented detail in the reconstruction of the 3-dimensional magnetic field. This is important because, due to their low collisionality, fast ions follow the magnetic geometry much more faithfully than the thermal plasma. The Monte Carlo orbit-following code ASCOT was used to simulate all the foreseen operating scenarios of ITER: the baseline 15 MA standard H-mode operation, the 12.5 MA hybrid scenario, the 9 MA advanced scenario, and the half-field scenario with helium plasma that will be ITER’s initial operating scenario. The effect of TBMs was assessed by carrying out the simulations in pairs: one including only the effect of ferritic inserts, and the other including also the perturbation due to TBMs. Both thermonuclear fusion alphas and NBI ions from ITER heating beams were addressed. The TBMs are found to increase the power loads, but the absolute values remain small. Neither do they produce any additional hot spots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mega Ampère Spherical Tokamak (MAST) programme is strongly focused on addressing key physics issues in preparation for operation of ITER as well as providing solutions for DEMO design choices. In this regard, MAST has provided key results in understanding and optimizing H-mode confinement, operating with smaller edge localized modes (ELMs), predicting and handling plasma exhaust and tailoring auxiliary current drive. In all cases, the high-resolution diagnostic capability on MAST is complemented by sophisticated numerical modelling to facilitate a deeper understanding. Mitigation of ELMs with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) with toroidal mode number nRMP = 2, 3, 4, 6 has been demonstrated: at high and low collisionality; for the first ELM following the transition to high confinement operation; during the current ramp-up; and with rotating nRMP = 3 RMPs. nRMP = 4, 6 fields cause less rotation braking whilst the power to access H-mode is less with nRMP = 4 than nRMP = 3, 6. Refuelling with gas or pellets gives plasmas with mitigated ELMs and reduced peak heat flux at the same time as achieving good confinement. A synergy exists between pellet fuelling and RMPs, since mitigated ELMs remove fewer particles. Inter-ELM instabilities observed with Doppler backscattering are consistent with gyrokinetic simulations of micro-tearing modes in the pedestal. Meanwhile, ELM precursors have been strikingly observed with beam emission spectroscopy (BES) measurements. A scan in beta at the L–H transition shows that pedestal height scales strongly with core pressure. Gyro-Bohm normalized turbulent ion heat flux (as estimated from the BES data) is observed to decrease with increasing tilt of the turbulent eddies. Fast ion redistribution by energetic particle modes depends on density, and access to a quiescent domain with ‘classical’ fast ion transport is found above a critical density. Highly efficient electron Bernstein wave current drive (1 A W−1) has been achieved in solenoid-free start-up. A new proton detector has characterized escaping fusion products. Langmuir probes and a high-speed camera suggest filaments play a role in particle transport in the private flux region whilst coherence imaging has measured scrape-off layer (SOL) flows. BOUT++ simulations show that fluxes due to filaments are strongly dependent on resistivity and magnetic geometry of the SOL, with higher radial fluxes at higher resistivity. Finally, MAST Upgrade is due to begin operation in 2016 to support ITER preparation and importantly to operate with a Super-X divertor to test extended leg concepts for particle and power exhaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper three-dimensional (3D) kinetic Monte Carlo orbit-following simulations are carried out with the ASCOT code to estimate the alpha particle driven current and torque profiles in ITER baseline scenarios. Several different 3D magnetic field configurations, including TF ripple, ferritic inserts, test blanket modules and edge localized mode coil perturbations, are used in these simulations. The alpha particle current is found to be less than one percent for all configurations and scenarios. In axisymmetric magnetic field configurations, the collisional and j × B torque components cancel each other, whilst in non-axisymmetric cases, the total torque is nonzero. The total alpha driven torque is found to oppose that generated by the neutral beam injection particles and to be an order of magnitude smaller. Consequently, alpha particles will not significantly contribute to the plasma current nor act as a source of plasma rotation in the ITER baseline scenarios considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence for low field side accumulation of tungsten is often observed in bolometry and soft x-ray emissivities of highly rotating JET ITER-like wall (ILW) plasmas. Poloidal variation of the density of high-Z impurities, such as tungsten, in the core of NBI heated plasmas is expected from neoclassical theory due to charge displacement and parallel electric field generated by the centrifugal force. We calculate the poloidally asymmetric distribution of tungsten using fluid equations and a 1D transport simulation with the JETTO/SANCO code. Peaking of tungsten on the outboard side of the plasma is found and verified with soft x-ray and bolometry measurements. We then study the effect of a poloidally asymmetric tungsten distribution on the distribution of the NBI heat source by simulations with the Monte Carlo code ASCOT. The simulations show that the poloidally asymmetric tungsten profile redistributes the fast NBI ions radially through shifting their ionization profile and poloidally through enhanced pitch-angle scattering at high energy. The amplitude of the redistribution is in the order of 10% for the highest nW/ne ratios of ∼10−4 measured in recent JET H-mode plasmas. As a result of the scattering of the beam particles, the core heat deposition is changed less than 10%, which does not have a significant impact to the performance of JET plasmas. The modelling is in qualitative agreement with measurements by the vertical neutron camera that sees a broadening in the 2.5 MeV neutron profile when tungsten peaks on the outboard side of the plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]