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Experiments in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) have explored several novel regimes of improved tokamak confinement in deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas, including plasmas with reduced or reversed magnetic shear in the core and high-current plasmas with increased shear in the outer region (high-l{sub i}). New techniques have also been developed to enhance the confinement in these regimes by modifying the plasma-limiter interaction through in-situ deposition of lithium. In reversed-shear plasmas, transitions to enhanced confinement have been observed at plasma currents up to 2.2 MA (q{sub a} {approx} 4.3), accompanied by the formation of internal transport barriers, where large radial gradients develop in the temperature and density profiles. Experiments have been performed to elucidate the mechanism of the barrier formation and its relationship with the magnetic configuration and with the heating characteristics. The increased stability of high-current, high-l{sub i} plasmas produced by rapid expansion of the minor cross-section, coupled with improvement in the confinement by lithium deposition has enabled the achievement of high fusion power, up to 8.7 MW, with D-T neutral beam heating. The physics of fusion alpha-particle confinement has been investigated in these regimes, including the interactions of the alphas with endogenous plasma instabilities and externally applied waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. In D-T plasmas with q{sub 0} > 1 and weak magnetic shear in the central region, a toroidal Alfven eigenmode instability driven purely by the alpha particles has been observed for the first time. The interactions of energetic ions with ion Bernstein waves produced by mode-conversion from fast waves in mixed-species plasmas have been studied as a possible mechanism for transferring the energy of the alphas to fuel ions.

The major contributions to this workshop came from TORE-SUPRA, TPX, LHD and W7-X (two tokamaks, one heliotron and a stellarator). All four devices are of similar size and designed for a similar range of parameters and, in particular, they address the same target - steady-state plasma operation. TORE-SUPRA is a circular cross section tokamak, LHD is designed with optimized continuous coils and provides a helical divertor, TPX and W7-X incorporate strongly-shaped geometries to improve confinement and stability and optimize the bootstrap current. In TPX, the system is optimized for a large bootstrap current, in W7-X for basically no bootstrap current. Also the heating systems are designed for the specific purpose of steady-state operation. TORE-SUPRA is in operation, LHD is near completion; W7-X has recently (after the workshop) been approved; TPX is still in the approval phase. Superconducting coil material is NbTi for TORE-SUPRA, LHD and W7-X and Nb3Sn for TPX. The TF-coils of TORE-SUPRA (1.8 K, superfluid He) and the helical coil of LHD (4.2 K for the first part of experiments with 3 T) are bath-cooled. Cable-in-conduit conductors are used in the other SC coils. Largely different solutions are selected for the SC cable composition. Except for TPX, which has a double-null poloidal field divertor matched to the strong plasma shaping, most of the steady-state devices have a very flexible plasma edge configuration: islands or ergodic boundaries (W7-X, TORE-SUPRA, LHD), limiter (TORE-SUPRA), helical divertor (LHD, W7-X). The status of plasma equilibrium control, high heat flux materials and activation problems were also discussed. Power plant studies based on different steady-state confinement concepts were presented and confronted with a summary on the PULSAR study based on pulsed systems.

After many years of fusion research, the conditions needed for a D–T fusion reactor have been approached on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Fusion Technol. 21, 1324 (1992)]. For the first time the unique phenomena present in a D–T plasma are now being studied in a laboratory plasma.The first magnetic fusion experiments to study plasmas using nearly equal concentrations of deuterium and tritium have been carried out on TFTR. At present the maximum fusion power of 10.7 MW, using 39.5 MW of neutral‐beam heating, in a supershot discharge and 6.7 MW in a high‐βp discharge following a current rampdown. The fusion power density in a core of the plasma is ≊2.8 MW m−3, exceeding that expected in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1991), Vol. 3, p. 239] at 1500 MW total fusion power. The energy confinement time, τE, is observed to increase in D–T, relative to D plasmas, by 20% and the ni(0) Ti(0) τE product by 55%. The improvement in thermal confinement is caused primarily by a decrease in ion heat conductivity in both supershot and limiter‐H‐mode discharges. Extensive lithium pellet injection increased the confinement time to 0.27 s and enabled higher current operation in both supershot and high‐βp discharges. Ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating of a D–T plasma, using the second harmonic of tritium, has been demonstrated. First measurements of the confined alpha particles have been performed and found to be in good agreement with TRANSP [Nucl. Fusion 34, 1247 (1994)] simulations. Initial measurements of the alpha ash profile have been compared with simulations using particle transport coefficients from He gas puffing experiments. The loss of alpha particles to a detector at the bottom of the vessel is well described by the first‐orbit loss mechanism. No loss due to alpha‐particle‐driven instabilities has yet been observed. D–T experiments on TFTR will continue to explore the assumptions of the ITER design and to examine some of the physics issues associated with an advanced tokamak reactor.

The poloidal and toroidal spatial distributions of D α , He I and C II emission have been obtained in the vicinity of the TFTR bumper limiter and are compared with models of ion flow to the surface. The distributions are found not to agree with a model (the “cosine” model) which determines the incident flux density using only the parallel fluxes in the scrape-off layer and the projected area of the surface perpendicular to the field lines. In particular, the cosine model is not able to explain the significant fluxes observed at locations on the surface which are oblique to the magnetic field. It is further shown that these fluxes cannot be explained by the finite Larmor radii of impinging ions. Finally, it is demonstrated, with the use of Monte Carlo codes, that the distributions can be explained by including both parallel and cross-field transport onto the limiter surface.

High poloidal beta (βp approximately 5) discharges produced with nearly balanced tangential neutral beam injection into low current discharges in the TFTR tokamak are described. As βp exceeds approximately 1.2 times the aspect ratio, a separatrix with an inside poloidal field null is observed to limit the outer boundary of the plasma. Since the curvature of TFTR's applied vertical field is constant, the appearance of the poloidal field null corresponds to the equilibrium poloidal beta limit

Under some conditions, a very large influx of carbon into TFTR occurs during neutral beam injection into low recycling plasmas (the supershot regime). These carbon 'blooms' result in serious degradation of plasma parameters. The sources of this carbon have been identified as hot spots on the TFTR bumper limiter at or near the last closed flux surface. Two separate temperature thresholds have been identified. One threshold, at about 1650°C, is consistent with radiation enhanced sublimation (RES). The other, at about 2300°C, appears to be thermal sublimation of carbon from the limiter. The carbon influx can be quantitatively accounted for by taking laboratory values for RES rates, making reasonable assumptions about the extent of the blooming area and assuming unity carbon recycling at the limiter. Such high carbon recycling is expected, and it is shown that, in target plasmas at least, it is observed on TFTR. The sources of the carbon blooms are sites which have either loosely attached fragments of limiter material (caused by damage) or surfaces that are nearly perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. Such surfaces may have local power depositions two orders of magnitude higher than usual. The TFTR team modified the limiter during the opening of winter 1989–1990. The modifications greatly reduced the number and magnitude of the blooms, so that they are no longer a problem.

Deuterium neutral beams with energies up to 110 keV were injected into TFTR (Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor) plasmas at low magnetic field such that the beam injection velocities were comparable to the Alfven velocity. Excitation of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes was observed by Mirnov coils and beam emission spectroscopy. 10 refs., 4 figs.

This paper addresses the processes during disruptions of plasmas in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), including precursor phenomena, and the resulting effects which are of concern in future devices, such as heat loads and runaways. The pre-disruptive behavior varies for disruptions due to operation at different operating limits such as (a) high density, (b) low q a , and (c) high poloidal beta β p . Power loading and runaway electron impact on the first wall of a tokamak are important issues in present research devices and in the design of future devices such as CIT and ITER. In particular, disruptions can deposit large amounts of power in localized areas which can then damage the wall or adversely affect operation. The time scales and spatial profiles of heat deposition on the first wall have been studied with a poloidal array of infrared detectors and an extensive array of thermocouples providing coverage of the entire axi-symmetric, primary power-handling limiter in TFTR — the bumper limiter. While there were often common hot spots, different types of disruptions caused different heating patterns and heat loads on the bumper limiter.

The TFTR (Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor) bumper limiter (BL) is an axisymmetric toroidal limiter mounted on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel. It subtends 120 degrees poloidally and has a surface area of 22 m/sup 2/. The plasma-facing surface consists of 1000 kg of graphite tiles mounted on water-cooled Inconel backing plates. During the initial installation in the Spring of 1985, the limiter surface was aligned to the toroidal magnetic field by mechanical and magnetic measurements to an estimated accuracy of +or-2 mm. The methods used to mechanically align the limiter are described, and evidence, based on machine operation with a plasma, that the limiter is reasonably well aligned with the toroidal field is presented. Future work addressing the alignment of the total limiter to the toroidal field using mechanical and magnetic measurements and the replacement of a subset of the carbon times with carbon-carbon composite material is also discussed. >

Initial operation of the tokamak fusion test reactor has concentrated upon confinement studies of Ohmically heated hydrogen and deuterium plasmas. Total energy confinement times (${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{E}$) are 0.1-0.2 s for a line-average density range (${\overline{n}}_{e}$) of (1-2.5)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{19}$ ${\mathrm{m}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ with electron temperatures of ${T}_{e}(0)\ensuremath{\sim}1.2\ensuremath{-}2.2$ keV, ion temperatures of ${T}_{i}(0)\ensuremath{\sim}0.9\ensuremath{-}1.5$ keV, and ${Z}_{\mathrm{eff}}\ensuremath{\sim}3$. A comparison of Princeton large torus, poloidal divertor experiment, and tokamak fusion test reactor plasma confinement supports a dimension-cubed scaling law.

Experiments with plasmas having nearly equal concentrations of deuterium and tritium have been carried out on TFTR. To date, the maximum fusion power has been 10.7 MW, using 39.5 MW of neutral-beam heating, in a supershot discharge and 6.7 MW in a high-{beta}{sub p} discharge following a current ramp-down. The fusion power density in the core of the plasma has reached 2.8 MWm{sup {minus}3}, exceeding that expected in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITTER). The energy confinement time, {tau}{sub E}, is observed to increase in D-T, relative to D plasmas, by 20% and the n{sub i}(O){center_dot}{tau}{sub E} product by 55%. The improvement in thermal confinement is caused primarily by a decrease in ion heat conductivity in both supershot and limiter-H-mode discharges. Extensive lithium pellet injection increased the confinement time to 0.27 s and enabled higher current operation in both supershot and high-{beta}{sub p} discharges. First measurements of the confined alpha particles have been performed and found to be in good agreement with TRANSP simulations assuming classical confinement. Measurements of the alpha ash profile have been compared with simulations using particle transport coefficients from helium gas puffing experiments. The loss of energetic alpha particles to a detector at the bottom ofmore » the vessel is well described by the first-orbit loss mechanism. No loss due to alpha-particle-driven instabilities has yet been observed. ICRF heating of a D-T plasma, using the second harmonic of tritium, has been demonstrated. D-T experiments on TFTR will continue both to explore the physics underlying the ITER design and to examine some of the physics issues associated with an advanced tokamak reactor.« less