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New experiments on DIII-D have demonstrated the steady-state potential of the hybrid scenario, with 1 MA of plasma current driven fully non-inductively and βN up to 3.7 sustained for ~3 s (~1.5 current diffusion time, τR, in DIII-D), providing the basis for an attractive option for steady-state operation in ITER and FNSF. Excellent confinement is achieved (H98y2 ~ 1.6) without performance limiting tearing modes. The hybrid regime overcomes the need for off-axis current drive efficiency, taking advantage of poloidal magnetic flux pumping that is believed to be the result of a saturated 3/2 tearing mode. This allows for efficient current drive close to the axis, without deleterious sawtooth instabilities. In these experiments, the edge surface loop voltage is driven down to zero for >1 τR when the poloidal β is increased above 1.9 at a plasma current of 1.0 MA and the ECH power is increased to 3.2 MW. Stationary operation of hybrid plasmas with all on-axis current drive is sustained at pressures slightly above the ideal no-wall limit, while the calculated ideal with-wall MHD limit is βN ~ 4–4.5. Off-axis Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) power has been used to broaden the pressure and current profiles in this scenario, seeking to take advantage of higher predicted kink stability limits and lower values of the tearing stability index Δ′, as calculated by the DCON and PEST3 codes. Results based on measured profiles predict ideal limits at βN > 4.5, 10% higher than the cases with on-axis NBI. A 0-D model, based on the present confinement, βN and shape values of the DIII-D hybrid scenario, shows that these plasmas are consistent with the ITER 9 MA, Q = 5 mission and the FNSF 6.7 MA scenario with Q = 3.5. With collisionality and edge safety factor values comparable to those envisioned for ITER and FNSF, the high-βN hybrid represents an attractive high performance option for the steady-state missions of these devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed measurements in two dimensions by probes and Thomson scattering reveal unexpected local electric potential and electron pressure (Pe) maxima near the divertor X point in L-mode plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)]. The potential drives EXB circulation about the X point, thereby exchanging plasma between closed and open magnetic surfaces at rates that can be comparable to the total cross-separatrix transport. The potential is consistent with the classical parallel Ohm's law. A simple model is proposed to explain the pressure and potential hills in low power, nearly detached plasmas. Recent two-dimensional edge transport modeling with plasma drifts also shows X-point pressure and potential hills but by a different mechanism. These experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that low power tokamak plasmas can be far from poloidal uniformity in a boundary layer just inside the separatrix. Additional data, although preliminary and incomplete, suggest that EXB circulation across the separatrix might be a common feature of low confinement behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a series of scaling studies attempting to correlate the high-mode power threshold (P[sub TH] with global parameters. Dependence of P[sub TH] on local edge parameters; Role of radiation in the determination of P[sub TH]; Constraints in the theories of low-high transitions by scaling.