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COMPASS-U, a high magnetic field tokamak with hot walls, will be designed and built at IPP Prague. Unique features of this new device bring noticeable constraints and requirements on plasma diagnostics, which make their development highly demanding. In this paper, the main expected constraints influencing the conceptual design of diagnostic tools for COMPASS-U (high temperature of the vacuum vessel, high plasma density, high heat flux density, strong auxiliary plasma heating, spatial constraints, liquid metals in the divertor) are reviewed and possible solutions are indicated.

The present COMPASS tokamak at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Prague is equipped with the 2-mm interferometer, which gives a possibility to measure line-average electron densities up to 1.2×1020 m−3. A high magnetic field tokamak COMPASS-U will be designed and built to replace COMPASS. Higher line-average plasma densities in COMPASS-U of about 5×1020 m−3 will require a new design of the interferometer. This will provide measurements in a wide density range and will allow using a real-time gas puff density feedback. A solution based on the solid-state technology is proposed. The system will use two microwave transceivers with close sub-millimeter wavelengths and will fulfill the principle of the unambiguous measurement. An assessment of signal corrections corresponding to non-linearity effects caused by plasma refractive index is performed. The ray-tracing FIESTA-8 code was used to model the propagation of the probing waves through COMPASS-U plasmas.

Power handling experiments with a special liquid metal divertor module based on the capillary porous system technology were performed in the tokamak COMPASS. The performance of two metals (Li and LiSn alloy) were tested for the first time in a divertor under ELMy H-mode conditions. No damage of the capillary mesh and a good exhaust capability were observed for both metals in two separate experiments with up to 12 MW/m(2) of deposited perpendicular, inter-ELM steady-state heat flux and with ELMs of relative energy similar to 3% and a local peak energy fluence at the module similar to 15 kJ.m(-2). No droplets were directly ejected from the mesh top surface and for the LiSn experiment, no contamination of the core and SOL plasmas by Sn was observed. The elemental depth profile analysis of 14 stainless-steel samples located around the vacuum vessel for each experiment provides information about the migration of evaporated/redeposited liquid elements.

The role of the COMPASS tokamak in research of generation, confinement and losses of runaway electron (RE) population is presented. Recently, two major groups of experiments aimed at improved understanding and control of the REs have been pursued. First, the effects of the massive gas injection (~1021 Ar/Ne particles) and impurity seeding (~1018 particles) were studied systematically. The observed phenomena include generation of the post-disruption RE beam and current conversion from plasma to RE. Zero loop voltage control was implemented in order to study the decay in simplified conditions. A distinctive drop of background plasma temperature and electron density was observed following an additional deuterium injection into the RE beam. With the loop voltage control the parametric dependence of the current decay rate dI/dt can be studied systematically and possibly extrapolated to larger facilities. Second, recent results of experiments focused on the role of the magnetic field in physics of RE were analysed. In this contribution, special attention is given to the observed effects of the resonant magnetic perturbation on the RE population. The benefits of the RE experiments on COMPASS was reinforced by diagnostic enhancements (fast cameras, Cherenkov detector, vertical ECE etc) and modelling efforts (in particular, coupling of the METIS and LUKE codes).

The COMPASS tokamak, a divertor device with clear H-mode and ITER-relevant geometry, has been re-installed in IPP Prague after its transport from CCFE in UK. The first plasma was achieved in December 2008. Many new diagnostic tools with both high temporal and spatial resolutions have been developed to address the scientific programme of COMPASS focused on H-mode physics and pedestal investigations. In the paper, an overview of existing and in near future planned diagnostics (magnetic, spectroscopy, microwave, probe and beam/particle) on COMPASS is given including their basic technical specifications and achievements.

The paper generally outlines a design of new multichannel optical diagnostics for the COMPASS (COMPact ASSembly) tokamak. The final design of a port plug for a multispectral diagnostic tool is introduced and its evolution taking into consideration spatial and other technical restrictions is reviewed. A similar solution of both focusing optics and optical signal diversion will be used for a new Thomson scattering (TS) system, which is specified in the second part of the article. Main parameters of the TS system, such as laser energy and regions of observation, were determined with respect to both electron temperature and density profiles and required ultrahigh spatial resolution at the plasma edge.

Typical situations, which can be met during the process of absolute calibration, are shown in the case of a visible light observation system for the COMPASS tokamak. Technical issues and experimental limitations of absolute measurements connected with tokamak operation are discussed.

High-resolution spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the measurement of plasma rotation as well as ion temperature using the Doppler shift of the emitted spectral lines and their Doppler broadening, respectively. Both passive and active diagnostic variants for the COMPASS tokamak are introduced. The passive diagnostic focused on the C III lines at about 465 nm is utilized for the observation of the poloidal plasma rotation. The current set-up of the measuring system is described, including the intended high-throughput optics upgrade. Different options to increase the fiber collection area are mentioned, including a flower-like fiber bundle, and the use of micro-lenses or tapered fibers. Recent measurements of poloidal plasma rotation of the order of 0–6 km/s are shown. The design of the new active diagnostic using a deuterium heating beam and based on charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (C VI line at 529 nm) is introduced. The tool will provide both space (0.5–5 cm) and time (10 ms) resolved toroidal plasma rotation and ion temperature profiles. The results of the Simulation of Spectra code used to examine the feasibility of charge exchange measurements on COMPASS are shown and connected with a selection of the spectrometer coupled with the CCD camera.