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The plasma control system (PCS) of QUEST is developed according to the progress of QUEST project. Since one of the critical goals of the project is to achieve the steady-state operation with high temperature vacuum vessel wall, the PCS is also required to have the capability to control the plasma for a long period. For the increase of the loads to processing power of the PCS, the PCS is decentralized with the use of reflective memories (RFMs). The PCS controls the plasma edge position with the real-time identification of plasma current and its position. This identification is done with not only flux loops but also hall sensors. The gas fueling method by piezo valve with monitoring the Hα signal filtered by a digital low-pass filter are proposed and suitable for the steady-state operation on QUEST. The present status and prospect of the PCS are presented with recent topics.

In the present RF-driven divertor plasma of QUEST, it has been observed that orbit-driven current flows in the open magnetic surfaces outside of the closed magnetic surfaces. To observe this phenomenon and the characteristics of the orbit-driven current, current density profiles have been calculated on two different equilibrium conditions. We calculated current density profiles from particle guiding center orbits both for the fundamental and the second harmonic resonances for the 8.2 GHz electron cyclotron current drive. From this calculation, hollow current density profiles have been obtained with significant characteristics on both conditions. Only positive current distribution has been observed in the open magnetic surfaces outside of the closed magnetic surfaces.

In order to evaluate the magnetic surface current density distributions, the electron guiding center orbits were calculated with the equilibrium fitting plasma equilibrium analysis. The current density distributions in electron cyclotron-heated plasma were estimated from the orbit analyses in the equilibrium plasma shaping for the fundamental and the second-harmonic resonant electrons separately. The current density distribution profiles on the equatorial plane were obtained for the electrons with initially positive and negative velocities parallel to the magnetic field direction as well as the trapped electrons. The surface averaged current density profiles of the closed flux surfaces were also evaluated. A significant amount of the positive current density distributions appeared outside the last closed flux surface (LCFS), while all the negative current density distributions were evaluated inside the LCFS. The trapped electrons being the second-harmonic electron cyclotron resonant contributed the negative current inside the LCFS. The positive current density distributions outside the LCFS were significant for the driven current density for both the fundamental and second-harmonic resonances.

A drift error correction technique with machine vision and a real-time equilibrium calculation code have been developed on the QUEST (Q-shu university experiment with the steady-state spherical tokamak) for steady-state operation. The drift error caused by the long time-integration of magnetic raw signals has to be removed. With a captured image of the plasma’s cross section, the plasma’s position is identified by use of image filters. The measured magnetic flux values are corrected to the calculated flux values estimated by using this plasma position. The correction with the captured image work as expected in the preliminary result using a flashlight instead of a plasma.

Global particle balance in non-inductive long-duration plasma on QUEST has been investigated. Approximately 70% of the fuel hydrogen (H) was retained in the wall and then was almost exhausted just after the discharge. The global recycling ratio (Rg), defined as the ratio of the evacuated H2 flux to that injected, was found to gradually increase during discharges and subsequently rose rapidly. To study the growth of Rg, the thermal desorption spectra after deuterium implantation in a specimen exposed to QUEST plasma was analyzed with a model which includes reflection, diffusion, solution, recombination, trapping, and plasma-induced desorption in the re-deposition layer. The model reconstructs the growth of Rg during a long-duration plasma and indicates solution plays a dominant role in the growth.

A plasma control system to sustain divertor configurations is developed on QUEST (Q-shu university experiment with steady-state spherical tokamak). Magnetic fluxes are numerically integrated at 100 kHz using FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) modules and transferred to a main calculation loop at 4 kHz. With these signals, plasma shapes are identified in real time at 2 kHz under the assumption that the plasma current can be represented as one filament current. This calculation is done in another calculation loop in parallel by taking advantage of a multi-core processor of the plasma control system. The inside and outside plasma edge positions are controlled to their target positions using PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control loops. Whereas the outside edge position can not be controlled by the outer PF coil current, the inside edge position can be controlled by the inner PF coil current.

QUEST has a divertor configuration with a high and a negative n-index, and the problem of plasma vertical position instability control in QUEST is still under extensive study for achieving high efficiency plasma. The instability we considered is that the toroidal plasma moves either up or down in the vacuum chamber until it meets the vessel wall and is extinguished. The actively controlled coils (HCU and HCL) outside the vacuum vessel are serially connected in feedback with a measurement of the plasma vertical position to provide stabilizing control. In this work, a robust controller is employed by using the loop synthesis method, and provides robust stability over a wide range of n-index. Moreover, the gain of the robust controller is lower than that of a typical proportional derivative (PD) controller in the operational frequency range; it indicates that the robust controller needs less power consumption than the PD controller does.

A CW phased-array antenna system for electron cyclotron/Bernstein wave heating and current drive (ECWH/CD, EBWH/CD) experiments was developed in the QUEST. The antenna was designed to excite an elliptically polarized pure O-mode wave in oblique injection for the O-X-B mode conversion scenario, and its good performance was confirmed at a high power level. Long pulse discharges with a plasma current of 10 kA and 15 kA were non-inductively attained for 37 s and 20 s, respectively, with only radio frequency (RF) power. Divertor configurationswere also obtained in the RF-sustained plasmas. A new operational window for sustained plasma current was observed in the high-density plasma with a higher RF incident power. Two new heating and current drive systems with an 8.56GHz klystron and a 28GHz gyrotron are being prepared to conduct CW EBWH/CD experiments in the high-density plasma. © 2012 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research.

Particle retention and recycling in plasma fusion devices are generally associated with the diffusion of atomic hydrogen into the materials. The resulted permeation of atomic hydrogen is known as plasma driven permeation (PDP). This permeation may also be significant, even in the walls, which are not directly exposed to the plasma. Under similar conditions, the permeation flux (Γperm) of hydrogen through a 30 μm thick Ni membrane heated at 412–575 K has been measured in the spherical tokamak QUEST. Γperm is being measured during the scans of different operating parameters like RF power (PRF), chamber pressure (Pchamber), discharge widths (τdis) and vertical magnetic field (BZ). Simultaneously edge plasma density and spectral intensities of atomic (Balmer) lines and molecular (Fulcher) bands have been compared with the permeation measurements. A linear relationship has been established between the time integrated Γperm i.e. permeation fluence (Qperm) and the time integrated Hα intensity i.e. Hα fluence (Qα). Qperm also shows a strong relationship with the edge plasma density and various spectral fluences. The obtained results are discussed for exploring the applicability of the permeation probes in measuring the atomic flux near the first walls.

We determined the nutritional profile of Monoraphidium sp. GK12, a newly isolated astaxanthin (AXA)-producing microalga, and investigated its potential use as a functional aquafeed by evaluating its effect on prawn pigmentation. GK12 contained high levels of pantothenic acid. The β-carotene content of GK12 was higher than that of Haematococcus, a well-studied AXA producer, and was similar to that of Spirulina. GK12 also had a high content of unsaturated fatty acids, of which linolenic acid (C18:3 n−3) was the most plentiful. A GK12-containing feed resulted in significant pigmentation of the prawns, comparable to that of prawns fed on synthetic AXA or Haematococcus. A GK12-containing feed also increased the survival rate of the prawns. Therefore, in addition to improving cultivation methods for Haematococcus, further research is needed into the use of GK12 as an alternative AXA source and as an ingredient of functional aquafeed for farmed fish.

On CPD [1] (Compact PWI experimental Device) experiment, information of electronic logbook and sequence status are distributed by Web services to prepare future experimental environment such as steady state operation and remote participation. Hence, all the researchers can acquire information with a Web browser installed on a personal computer if they are connected to the Internet. However, to carry a notebook computer all the time is a burden to researchers. Furthermore, the researchers may not be always connected to the Internet. Mobile phones are superior in portability compared to notebook computers, and are easy to connect with Internet through the wireless network of the telecom carriers. Moreover, since recent mobile phones have full browsing function, their affinities to the Web services are becoming high. On this account, Web services for mobile phones are developed to access experimental information. For sequence monitoring, a mobile application MIDlet that utilizes special functions of mobile phone such as sound and vibration is also developed to draw attentions of researchers to sequence status.

On tokamak devices, an induction electric field induced by poloidal field (PF) coils plays a role to produce initial plasma. On a DIII-D tokamak, the required induction electric field for plasma breakdown agrees well with theoretical predictions based on the Townsend avalanche theory. According to the Townsend avalanche theory, the minimum induction electric field for plasma breakdown depends on neutral gas pressure and connection length. For stable plasma breakdown, a sufficiently large induction electric field is required. However, in the case of spherical tokamaks without electric insulation in the toroidal direction, the effect of eddy currents flowing in the toroidal direction should be considered in evaluating a feasible induction electric field because this effect suppresses the generation of an induction electric field. On a QUEST spherical tokamak, the possibility of Townsend avalanche breakdown is studied by evaluating the connection length and achievable induction electric field. The connection length is greater than 100 m in the case where a null point is set to be R=0.56 m with a CS coil current of 2.0 kA and a PF26 coil current of 0.4 kA. Moreover, the induction electric field is about 1.5 V at this point including the effect of eddy currents. With these values, the initial plasma production by the induction electric field is sufficiently possible on QUEST.

Calorimetric measurements using the temperature increment of cooling-water were carried out to estimate the heat load distribution on the plasma facing components (PFCs) in the limiter discharges on TRIAM-1M. Line averaged electron density, ne, and LH power, PLH, dependences of the heat load on PFCs were measured. The heat load on the limiters was proportional to n e 1.5 in the range of ne = 0.2–1.0 × 1019 m−3 and P LH 1 in the range of PLH = 0.005–0.09 MW. For PLH > 0.1 MW, the plasma transition to an enhanced current drive (ECD) mode appeared and the ne dependences on the heat load on the limiter moderated. This indicates that the heat flux to scrape-off layer (SOL) region was reduced due to the improvement of the plasma confinement. The up–down asymmetry of the heat load on the vacuum vessel was enhanced in the ECD mode, which may be caused by the increasing of the direct loss of energetic electrons.

We investigate and calculate particle orbits and the effect of particle orbits on plasma current density for nonrelativistic resonance condition in the present RF-driven divertor plasma on QUEST. We surveyed particle orbits for different values of parallel refractive index, particle initial positions and pitch angles on fundamental and second harmonic resonance conditions. We observed that for fundamental harmonic resonance condition when particle orbits are plotted on the poloidal cross-section for positive values of parallel refractive index, these orbits are started from the resonance surface and produced their orbits around the LCFS (Large Closed Flux Surface). These orbits carry positive current. When particle orbits are plotted for negative values of parallel refractive index, these orbits are started from resonance surface, but remained at the inside of the LCFS. These orbits carry negative current that reduced the overall plasma current. For second harmonic resonance condition when particle orbits are plotted on the poloidal cross-section most of the orbits remained in inside the LCFS and carry positive current. When we consider the value of parallel refractive index −0.4 and +0.4 some particle orbits arrived at the limiter and become lost particles. On the other hand, when we consider particle initial positions 0.16 m or more vertically far from the mid plane some banana orbits are produced. These banana orbits make the current density profile maximum at low field side region. From this calculation we got a hollow current density profile with current density peak at the low field side region outside of the LCFS. From this calculation we can infer that parabolic current density profile is possible, if we set the resonance surface outside of the magnetic axis by increasing the toroidal magnetic field coil current and make the plasma position inward by increasing vertical field coil current.

Astaxanthin has recently attracted considerable attention for its biological properties such as the antioxidant activity as well as a coloring agent used for farmed fish. However, its biological production, mainly by a green microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis , is costly because of its fastidious growth characters. Therefore, for future applications of biological astaxanthin production in aquaculture, non-fastidious microalgal strains were isolated from environmental samples, examined for their astaxanthin-accumulating activity, and characterized phylogenetically. While β-carotene was found in all tested isolates, one isolate, GK12, from activated sludge of a sewage treatment plant accumulated 2.5 ± 0.36 mg/g dry cell of free astaxanthin de novo under photoautotrophic culture condition, which was comparable to photoautotrophic cultures of other known astaxanthin-accumulating microorganisms. Mixotrophic culture conditions increased GK12 biomass, but astaxanthin content was decreased, suggesting that the simple photoautotrophic cultivation is more efficient way for GK12 to produce astaxanthin than mixotrophic cultivation. A phylogenetic study of SSU rDNA strongly suggested that GK12 is a novel species in the genus Monoraphidium , Chlorophyta. Besides making efforts to increase astaxanthin-productivity of known astaxanthin accumulators, it is also beneficial to study GK12 from the view point of applications to aquaculture.

A discharge longer than 5 h was successfully achieved on TRIAM-1M by fully non-inductive lower hybrid current drive (LHCD). The heat load distribution into the plasma facing components (PFCs) during the 5 h discharge was investigated using calorimetric measurements, which estimated that the injected radio frequency (RF) power coincided with the total heat load amount to the PFCs. The power balance, including the portion of direct loss power of the fast electrons and the heat flux due to the charge exchange (CX) process, was also investigated.

Experiments aiming at 'day long operation at high performance' have been carried out in TRIAM-1M. The record value of the discharge duration was updated to 5 h and 16 min. Steady-state tokamak operation is studied under the localized plasma wall interaction conditions. The distributions of the heat load, the particle recycling flux and impurity source are investigated to understand the co-deposition and wall pumping. The formation and sustainment of an internal transport barrier (ITB) in enhanced current drive mode has been investigated by controlling the lower hybrid driven current profile by changing the phase spectrum. An ITER relevant remote steering antenna for electron cyclotron wave injection was installed and a relativistic Doppler resonance of the oblique propagating extraordinary wave with energetic electrons driven by lower hybrid waves was studied.

An electron cyclotron heating (ECH) system has been installed on the TRIAM-1M tokamak, which produces a 170 GHz microwave up to 260 kW at the window of the gyrotron for 5 sec. After the Matching Optical Unit (MOU) converts the microwave to a Gaussian beam, a microwave power of 200 kW is transmitted by a corrugated waveguide of 63.5 mm in diameter. Tests confirmed these specifications, and the fundamental ordinary electron cyclotron (EC) wave of 170 GHz up to 120 kW was injected into the vacuum vessel of the TRIAM-1M in order to ionize neutral hydrogen gas to make source plasma, which is expected to reduce flux consumption in the case of current start-up by means of Ohmic heating (OH) coils. Though the breakdown does not occur at the input RF power, PRF = 40 kW with the neutral gas pressure, p = 1.3×10−3Pa, high-density plasma (more than 0.7×1019m−3) is produced at PRF = 100 kW. In the range of PRF = 40−100 kW, the electron density is proportional to PRF.

The study of wall recycling of long duration discharge has been carried out using 2.45 GHz and 8.2 GHz lower hybrid current drive in the superconducting tokamak TRIAM-1M. The recycling coefficient increases with two time constants. One is 1˜3 s and the other is ˜30 s. These two time constants are common to low (˜2 × 1018 m-3) and high (˜1 × 1019 m-3) density discharges. In the ultra-long discharge, the wall repeats a process of being saturated and refreshed. One possible candidate of the mechanism of wall refreshment is co-deposition of in vessel element (i.e. Molybdenum). In the high density discharge, the wall becomes saturated and the discharge is terminated due to the density increase. The achievable discharge duration becomes shorter as the plasma density is higher.

In magnetized plasmas, the presence of a significant number of energetic electrons has been observed but quantitative characteristics of these electrons are proving difficult to investigate. A Langmuir probe offers a means to provide quantitative measurement of these energetic electrons that takes into account electron emissions (secondary electron emission and electron reflection) from the probe tips and sheath expansion around the probe tips caused by a considerable negative potential. In this paper, these effects are experimentally confirmed and an analytical means to measure energetic electron characteristics are proposed. An analysis of plasmas produced by a high frequency wave is then applied leading to the successful detection of an asymmetric flow of energetic electrons. The estimated electron temperature and current density were approximately 4-5 keV and 2-3 kA/m(2).

A theory is developed to explain cascading bifurcations to chaos observed in a current-carrying ion sheath. The basic equation is derived to describe ion dynamics in an ion sheath which obeys the Child-Langmuir law for a large potential drop and is numerically solved to show the same bifurcation sequences as those in the experiments.

As for hot gas flow according to fluid equation with interaction with electrical arc and solid chamber, fluid equation must be solved with moving boundary of the chamber and with interaction with hot arc and impurity intrusion. Here we propose application of CIP (cubic interpolated propagation) scheme, which is convenient and good at efficient advection and boundary motion. The CIP code was tested in simulation of normal shock tube, which has an analytical solution according to Rankine-Hugoniot relation, and applied in radial shock tube. And it was tested also in simulation of shock tube with solid piston between two fluids, using density function and functional transformation.

Formations of a closed flux surface (CFS) on QUEST are achieved by fully non-inductive current start-up driven by RF, which is 8.2GHz in frequency and more than 40kW in power. It found that appropriate magnetic configuration with positive n-index and reduction of particle recycling was crucial to achieve the non-inductive plasma current start-up (PCS) successfully. Especially the controllability of particle recycling should be improved by wall conditioning based on successive plasma production and wall cleaning with electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECR) plasmas induced by RF in frequency of 2.45GHz., 15th International Congress on Plasma Physics (ICPP2010) & 13th Latin American Workshop on Plasma Physics (LAWPP2010), 8–13 August 2010, Santiago, Chile

To investigate the effects of confinement of fast electrons on poloidal beta equilibrium, experiments under different toroidal magnetic mirror ratios, MOMFC, were performed in electron cyclotron heated plasma in the spherical tokamak QUEST. The proportional constants of the relation between plasma current and vertical magnetic fields decreased with increase in MOMFC. The poloidal field null point appeared in the chamber for MOMFC > 1.8 at a plasma current value of ∼15 kA. Poloidal beta and temperature of hard X-rays increased with MOMFC. This suggests that high poloidal beta equilibrium plasma is produced by better confinement of energetic trapped particles.

After intensive discharge cleaning of the chamber wall, non-inductive current start-up experiments have been successfully performed in QUEST in moderate vertical fields of about 1.0–1.5 mT with positive n-index. Simultaneously, with increasing plasma current, an asymmetric toroidal flow of energetic electrons was observed and direct measurements of current driven by this asymmetric flow were taken with a newly developed Langmuir probe technique. A numerical study of the energetic electron orbits indicates that the total current is enough to play a dominant role in the formation of a closed flux surface in QUEST.

Ohmic plasma currents of up to 17 kA with a discharge duration of 0.32 s have been obtained in the Kyushu University Experiment with Steady-State Spherical Tokamak (QUEST) with the help of electron cyclotron wave (ECW) and cancellation coils (CCs). The CCs, originally installed to create a field null in the plasma breakdown phase, are essential for producing plasma current in QUEST. Although the ohmic coil current is initially biased and then reduced completely to zero to induce the plasma current in 15-20 ms, we demonstrate that the flat top of the plasma current exceeding 20 ms is maintained by the vertical field after the ohmic current is switched off. This type of operation is quite favorable for extending pulsed operation to the steady state by electron Bernstein wave current drive (EBCD).

Because QUEST tokamak has a divertor configuration with a higher κ and a negative n-index, a precise power supply with a rapid response is needed to control the vertical position of the plasma. A matrix converter is a direct power conversion device that uses an array of controlled bidirectional switches as the main power elements for creating a variable-output current system. This paper presents a novel three-phase to two-phase topological matrix converter as a proposed power supply that stabilizes the plasma vertical position and achieves unity input power factor. An indirect control strategy in which the matrix converter is split into a virtual rectifier stage and a virtual inverter stage is adopted. In the virtual rectifier stage, the instantaneous active power and reactive power are decoupled on the basis of system equations derived from the DQ transformation; hence, unity power factor is achieved. Space vector pulse width modulation is adopted to determine the switching time of each switch in the virtual rectifier; the output voltage of the virtual rectifier is adjusted by the virtual inverter stage to obtain the desired load current. Theoretical analyses and simulation results are provided to verify its feasibility.

This paper presents a scheme for combining a Langmuir probe with a fast camera for measurement of the behavior of blob-like structures in the boundary region of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heating plasma in Q-shu University Experiment with a Steady-State Spherical Tokamak (QUEST, major radius, R = 0.68 m, minor radius, a = 0.40 m, and toroidal magnetic field, Bt = 0.25 T at R = 0.64 m). The frame rate of the camera was typically set to 40,000 frames per second (FPS) with 192 × 144 pixels per frame. Radial motion of blob-like structures was observed in the half of the plasma space where the probe head was located. A radially movable and rotatable probe system was used to measure the floating potential from single unbiased tips, the potential of the positively biased tip, and the ion saturation current in two orthogonal directions in the outboard midplane region. Time series of the ion saturation current measured by the Langmuir probe and of pixels in a 40,000 FPS movie were compared and cross-correlated. The results of the two diagnostics agreed well, and the spatial scale was found to be of the same as the size of the probe head. The ion saturation current was asymmetric in terms of the time the blob-like structure was passing; fast camera imaging also clearly demonstrated the blobs' filamentary structures and radial motion at the edge of QUEST. This means that plasma in the blob-like structure hunches over, like blobs in other devices. The typical radial velocity of the structures is ∼1 km/s, and the structures were accelerated along their path of radial motion from the inner to the outer parts of the vacuum vessel.

It is important to determine the best method for reconstructing the magnetic flux when eddy currents are significantly induced during magnetic measurement in spherical tokamaks (STs). Four methods for this reconstruction are investigated, and the calculated magnetic fluxes are compared to those measured in the cavity of a vacuum vessel. The results show that the best method is the one that uses currents from virtual coils for reconstruction. In this method, the placement of the virtual coils is optimized with numerical simulations using the Akaike information criterion (AIC), which indicates the goodness of fit of models used to fit measured data. The virtual coils are set on a line 15 cm outside the vacuum vessel.

Various phenomena of plasma-wall interactions during long duration discharges in TRIAM-1M are investigated from macroscopic and microscopic viewpoints. It is found that the density dependence of the hydrogen neutral flux decay length is not very sensitive to the density (i.e. ne−0.2 ). Neutral transport through the scrape-off layer is important for structural formation of hydrogen recycling. The hydrogen retention in the co-deposited layer, which was obtained using a material probe during long duration discharges, is consistent with the global wall pumping rate estimated from particle balance analysis. The wall temperature and co-deposition play important roles on hydrogen re-emission and hydrogen absorption, respectively. Oxygen impurities should affect the erosion and deposition properties of the plasma-facing wall as well as the hydrogen retention property of the co-deposited layer. The co-deposition of hydrogen with molybdenum and the oxygen impurities both play important roles in the hydrogen recycling.

QUEST focuses on the steady state operation of the spherical tokamak by controlled PWI and electron Bernstein wave current drive. One of the main purposes of QUEST is an achievement of long duration discharge with MW-class injected power. As the result, QUEST should be operated in the challenging region on heat and particle handling. To do the particle handling, high temperature all metal wall up to 623 K and closed divertors are planned, which is to realize the steady-state operation under recycling ratio, R = 1. This is a dispensable check to DEMO, because wall pumping should be avoided as possible in the view of tritium retention. The QUEST project will be developed in increment step such as, I. low β steady state operation in limiter configuration, II. low β steady state operation in divertor configuration, III. relatively high β steady state operation in closed divertor configuration. Phase I in the project corresponds to these two years, and final goal of phase I is to make full current drive plasma up to 20 kA. Closed divertor will be designed and tested in the Phase II. QUEST is running from Oct., 2008 and the first results are introduced.

For initial plasma production, an induction electric field generated by applying voltage to a poloidal field (PF) coil system is used to produce a Townsend avalanche breakdown. When the avalanche margins are small, as for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in which the induction electric field is about 0.3 V/m, the assistance of radio-frequency waves (RF) is provided to reduce the induction electric field required for reliable breakdown. However, the conditions of RF-assisted breakdown are not clear. Here, the effects of both RF and induction electric field on the RF-assisted breakdown are evaluated considering the electron loss. When traveling loss is the dominant loss, a simple model of an extended Townsend avalanche is proposed. In this model, the induction electric field required for RF-assisted breakdown can be decreased to half that required for induction breakdown.

A new technique to measure the current profile in plasmas with asymmetric distribution function such as lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) by using hard X-ray (HXR) energy spectrum measurement along the top and bottom identical line of sights (ILOS) is proposed and is applied to the full and partially LHCD plasmas on the TRIAM-1M tokamak at the first time in the world. The pitch angles were measured at R - R0 = ±2.5 cm, where R, R0 mean the major radii of the ILOS and the magnetic axis, respectively. The measured pitch angle of the magnetic field inverted at the magnetic axis estimated magnetic measurement in partially LHCD plasmas. This indicates that the difference of the measured pitch angles is caused by the plasma current in the plasma and this new method is available in detecting the current profile in tokamaks. In full LHCD plasma, no difference between the HXR signals along the top and bottom ILOS appear. This indicates that the current density around the magnetic axis was reduced compared with that in partially LHCD plasmas. This observation is no contradiction with power deposition of LHCD.

A simple model of radio frequency wave (RF) assisted breakdown based on Townsend avalanche theory is proposed for the purpose of evaluating the effect of RF on Townsend avalanche breakdown. According to this model, the required minimum electric field for RF-assisted breakdown can be decreased down to half of that for breakdown by the induction electric field alone. The electric field of RF reaches a minimum when the frequency of the RF is equal to the electron cyclotron frequency.