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Radiative cooling is one of the main heat dissipation channels for magnetically confined fusion plasmas. In stellarators power exhaust control is complicated by the three-dimensional radiation distribution. Using a Gaussian Process Tomography routine, the two-dimensional radiation distribution in Wendelstein 7-X is reconstructed from the line-integrated bolometer data of one poloidal cross-section. These experimental tomograms are mapped to the field of view of the newly installed divertor bolometer cameras and compared to the toroidally separated local measurements to assess the toroidal radiation distribution. We observe peaking of the plasma radiated power density in the divertor region and steep toroidal gradients, especially at low radiated power fraction (up to ×8 increase in the emissivity along a ∼2m long flux tube). These results suggest the presence of significant toroidal radiation asymmetries within a stellarator half-module.

The low magnetic shear in the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator makes it feasible to shape the separatrix by the large islands constituting an island-divertor, and this can be exploited to access various magnetic configurations, including samples of different internal island sizes and locations. To investigate the configuration effects on the plasma confinement, a configuration scan was performed by changing the coil currents to vary the rotational transform between values $5/4$ and $5/6$ at the plasma boundary with different power levels (2, 4, 6 MW) of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) at a maximum plasma density of $8 \times 10^{19}\,\textrm{m}^{-2}$ . neutral beam injection (NBI) heating was also applied during some configurations of the scan to create a density ramp and access high densities beyond the X2 ECRH cutoff. For the magnetic configurations, where the $5/5$ and $5/6$ island chains were moved closer to separatrix but remaining inside the last closed flux surface, the electron cyclotron emission shows that an electron temperature, $T_{\mathrm e}$ , pedestal develops already during ECRH heated plasma buildup phase indicating a transport barrier, and the barrier sustains irrespective of changed plasma heating conditions such as NBI in the later part of discharge. The transport barrier is broken by subsequent fast crashes, observed with multiple plasma diagnostics with characteristics such as tokamak edge localized modes, and the corresponding crash amplitude and frequency vary with plasma pressure. The impact of the transport barrier on plasma confinement can be seen through the increased core $T_{\mathrm e}$ profile, which could be responsible for the overall increase in the stored diamagnetic energy by approximately 10% for these configurations. After the plasma heating is terminated, a backwards transition to a degraded confinement state is also observed. These observations indicate a configuration triggered high confinement mode in low shear W7-X. This work focuses on the occurrence of this transport barrier for different magnetic configurations and its relation to internal magnetic islands.

Experiments were performed during the first divertor operational phase (OP1.2a) of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator to verify predictions of potential overload conditions corresponding to certain high-power long-pulse OP2 scenarios. A potential solution to this overload is the installation of new divertor components called scraper elements, which are designed to intercept heat flux that would otherwise be incident on low-rated divertor edges. Heat flux measurements were obtained in a series of magnetic configurations designed to mimic the magnetic topology evolution caused by net toroidal current and beta, which is not directly accessible in OP1.2a. The experimental flux patterns are qualitatively reproduced in position and magnitude for by field line diffusion simulations using ad hoc cross-field diffusivities near the value used to design the scraper element. However, some important differences are observed, including a shift towards the pumping gap and low-rated components. Potential sources of discrepancy such as toroidal current evolution and error fields are discussed. A shift in the experimental heat flux pattern due to increasing toroidal current is observed in a 12 s discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first campaign Wendelstein 7-X was operated with five poloidal graphite limiters installed stellarator symmetrically. In an ideal situation the power losses would be equally distributed between the limiters. The limiter shape was designed to smoothly distribute the heat flux over two strike lines. Vertically the strike lines are not uniform because of different connection lengths. In this paper it is demonstrated both numerically and experimentally that the heat flux distribution can be significantly changed by non-resonant perturbation field of the order of . Numerical studies are performed with field line tracing. In experiments perturbation fields are excited with five error field trim coils. The limiters are diagnosed with infrared cameras, neutral gas pressure gauges, thermocouples and spectroscopic diagnostics. Experimental results are qualitatively consistent with the simulations. With a suitable choice of the phase and amplitude of the perturbation a more symmetric plasma-limiter interaction can be potentially achieved. These results are also of interest for the later W7-X divertor operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first operational phase (referred to as OP1.1) of the new Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator, five poloidal graphite limiters were mounted on the inboard side of the vacuum vessel, one in each of the five toroidal modules which form the W7-X vacuum vessel. Each limiter consisted of nine specially shaped graphite tiles, designed to conform to the last closed field line geometry in the bean-shaped section of the standard OP1.1 magnetic field configuration (Sunn Pedersen et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion55 126001). We observed the limiters with multiple infrared and visible camera systems, as well as filtered photomultipliers. Power loads are calculated from infrared (IR) temperature measurements using THEODOR, and heating patterns (dual stripes) compare well with field line mapping and EMC3-EIRENE predictions. While the poloidal symmetry of the heat loads was excellent, the toroidal heating pattern showed up to a factor of 2×  variation, with peak heat loads on Limiter 1. The total power intercepted by the limiters was up to ~60% of the input ECRH heating power. Calorimetry using bulk tile heating (measured via post-shot IR thermography) on Limiter 3 showed a difference between short high power discharges, and longer lower power ones, with regards to the fraction of energy deposited on the limiters. Finally, fast heating transients, with frequency  >1 kHz were detected, and their visibility was enhanced by the presence of surface coatings which developed on the limiters by the end of the campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]