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The optimized superconducting stellarator device Wendelstein 7-X (with major radius R = 5.5 m, minor radius a = 0.5 m, and 30 m3 plasma volume) restarted operation after the assembly of a graphite heat shield and 10 inertially cooled island divertor modules. This paper reports on the results from the first high-performance plasma operation. Glow discharge conditioning and ECRH conditioning discharges in helium turned out to be important for density and edge radiation control. Plasma densities of 1-4.5 × 1019 m-3 with central electron temperatures 5-10 keV were routinely achieved with hydrogen gas fueling, frequently terminated by a radiative collapse. In a first stage, plasma densities up to 1.4 × 1020 m-3 were reached with hydrogen pellet injection and helium gas fueling. Here, the ions are indirectly heated, and at a central density of 8 · 1019 m-3 a temperature of 3.4 keV with Te/Ti = 1 was transiently accomplished, which corresponds to nTi(0)TE = 6.4 × 1019 keV s m-3 with a peak diamagnetic energy of 1.1 MJ and volume-averaged normalized plasma pressure {B}= 1.2%. The routine access to high plasma densities was opened with boronization of the first wall. After boronization, the oxygen impurity content was reduced by a factor of 10, the carbon impurity content by a factor of 5. The reduced (edge) plasma radiation level gives routinely access to higher densities without radiation collapse, e.g. well above 1 × 1020 m-2 line integrated density and Te = Ti = 2 keV central temperatures at moderate ECRH power. Both X2 and O2 mode ECRH schemes were successfully applied. Core turbulence was measured with a phase contrast imaging diagnostic and suppression of turbulence during pellet injection was observed., Euratom (Grant Agreement No. 633053)

Nonlinear transfer processes between large-scale edge flows and the ambient broadband fluctuations have been shown to play a significant role in the dynamics of edge turbulence, including spreading power from coherent modes and suppressing turbulence at the formation of edge transport barriers. In order to predict thresholds of confinement regimes, both the transition dynamics and the parametric dependence of the nonlinear energy transfer must be studied. Since the expected flow damping terms depend on ion collision rates and local safety factors, recent experiments aimed also to explore the nonlinear drive at various values of the plasma current, density and amount of auxiliary heating. Nonlinear interactions between zonal flows and turbulence in L-mode are estimated using bispectral as well as time-resolved methods based on gas-puff-imaging in Alcator C-Mod [1].

Two-dimensional scrape-off layer turbulence (SOLT) code simulations are compared with an L-mode discharge on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [Greenwald et al., Phys. Plasmas 21, 110501 (2014)]. Density and temperature profiles for the simulations were obtained by smoothly fitting Thomson scattering and mirror Langmuir probe (MLP) data from the shot. Simulations differing in turbulence intensity were obtained by varying a dissipation parameter. Mean flow profiles and density fluctuation amplitudes are consistent with those measured by MLP in the experiment and with a Fourier space diagnostic designed to measure poloidal phase velocity. Blob velocities in the simulations were determined from the correlation function for density fluctuations, as in the analysis of gas-puff-imaging (GPI) blobs in the experiment. In the simulations, it was found that larger blobs moved poloidally with the E × B flow velocity, v E , in the near-SOL, while smaller fluctuations moved with the group velocity of the dominant linear (interchange) mode, v[subscript E] + 1/2 v[subscript di] , where v [subscript di] is the ion diamagnetic drift velocity. Comparisons are made with the measured GPI correlation velocity for the discharge. The saturation mechanisms operative in the simulation of the discharge are also discussed. It is found that neither sheared flow nor pressure gradient modification can be excluded as saturation mechanisms., United States. Department of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Grant DE-FG02-97ER54392), United States. Department of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Agreement DE-FC02-99ER54512), United States. Department of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Contract DE-AC02-09CH11466)

Analysis of the time series obtained with the O-Mode reflectometer [Rhodes et al., 1997 Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 40, 493-510 (1998)] and the gas puff imaging [Cziegler et al., Phys. Plasmas 17(5), 056120 (2010)] systems on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak reveals that the turbulent edge density fluctuations are chaotic. Supporting evidence for this conclusion includes the observation of exponential power spectra (which is associated with Lorentzian-shaped pulses in the time series), the population of the corresponding Bandt-Pompe probability distributions [Bandt and Pompe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 174102 (2002)], and the location of the signal on the complexity-entropy plane (C-H plane) [Rosso et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 154102 (2007)]. The classification of edge turbulence as chaotic opens the door for further work to understand the underlying process and the impact on turbulent transport., United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-FC02-99ER54512), United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-FC02-07ER54918-011)

A study of long-legged tokamak divertor configurations is performed with the edge transport code UEDGE (Rognlien et al., J. Nucl. Mater. 196, 347, 1992). The model parameters are based on the ADX tokamak concept design (LaBombard et al., Nucl. Fusion 55, 053020, 2015). Several long-legged divertor configurations are considered, in particular the X-point target configuration proposed for ADX, and compared with a standard divertor. For otherwise identical conditions, a scan of the input power from the core plasma is performed. It is found that as the power is reduced to a threshold value, the plasma in the outer leg transitions to a fully detached state which defines the upper limit on the power for detached divertor operation. Reducing the power further results in the detachment front shifting upstream but remaining stable. At low power the detachment front eventually moves to the primary X-point, which is usually associated with degradation of the core plasma, and this defines the lower limit on the power for the detached divertor operation. For the studied parameters, the operation window for a detached divertor in the standard divertor configuration is very small, or even non-existent; under the same conditions for long-legged divertors the detached operation window is quite large, in particular for the X-point target configuration, allowing a factor of 5–10 variation in the input power. These modeling results point to possibility of stable fully detached divertor operation for a tokamak with extended divertor legs., United States. Department of Energy (Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344)

Results from recent experiment and numerical simulation point towards a picture of the L-H transition in which edge shear flows interacting with edge turbulence create the conditions needed to produce a non-zero turbulent Reynolds stress at and just inside the LCFS during L-mode discharges. This stress acts to reinforce the shear flow at this location and the flow drive gets stronger as heating is increased. The L-H transition ensues when the rate of work done by this stress is strong enough to drive the shear flow to large values, which then grows at the expense of the turbulence intensity. The drop in turbulence intensity momentarily reduces the heat flux across the magnetic flux surface, which then allows the edge plasma pressure gradient to build. A sufficiently strong ion pressure gradient then locks in the H-mode state. These results are in general agreement with previously published reduced 0D and 1D predator prey models. An extended predator-prey model including separate ion and electron heat channels yields a non-monotonic power threshold dependence on plasma density provided that the fraction of heat deposited on the ions increases with plasma density. Possible mechanisms to explain other macroscopic transition threshold criteria are identified. A number of open questions and unexplained observations are identified, and must be addressed and resolved in order to build a physics-based model that can yield predictions of the macroscopic conditions needed for accessing H-mode., United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-FC02-99ER54512-CMOD), United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0008689), United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0008378), United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0001961)

Experiments in Alcator C-Mod to assess the level of toroidal asymmetry in divertor conditions resulting from poloidally and toroidally localized extrinsic impurity gas seeding show a weak toroidal peaking (∼1.1) in divertor electron temperatures for high-power enhanced D-alpha H-mode plasmas. This is in contrast to similar experiments in Ohmically heated L-mode plasmas, which showed a clear toroidal modulation in the divertor electron temperature. Modeling of these experiments using the 3D edge transport code EMC3-EIRENE [Y. Feng et al., J. Nucl. Mater. 241, 930 (1997)] qualitatively reproduces these trends, and indicates that the different response in the simulations is due to the ionization location of the injected nitrogen. Low electron temperatures in the private flux region (PFR) in L-mode result in a PFR plasma that is nearly transparent to neutral nitrogen, while in H-mode the impurities are ionized in close proximity to the injection location, with this latter case yielding a largely axisymmetric radiation pattern in the scrape-off-layer. The consequences for the ITER gas injection system are discussed. Quantitative agreement with the experiment is lacking in some areas, suggesting potential areas for improving the physics model in EMC3-EIRENE., United States. Department of Energy (Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725), United States. Department of Energy (Contract DE-FC02-99ER54512)

Growth of tungsten nano-tendrils (“fuzz”) has been observed for the first time in the divertor region of a high-power density tokamak experiment. After 14 consecutive helium L-mode discharges in Alcator C-Mod, the tip of a tungsten Langmuir probe at the outer strike point was fully covered with a layer of nano-tendrils. The depth of the W fuzz layer (600 ± 150 nm) is consistent with an empirical growth formula from the PISCES experiment. Re-creating the C-Mod exposures as closely as possible in Pilot-PSI experiment can produce nearly-identical nano-tendril morphology and layer thickness at surface temperatures that agree with uncertainties with the C-Mod W probe temperature data. Helium concentrations in W fuzz layers are measured at 1–4 at.%, which is lower than expected for the observed sub-surface voids to be filled with several GPa of helium pressure. This possibly indicates that the void formation is not pressure driven., United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-SC00-02060)

Injecting Lower Hybrid Range of Frequency (LHRF) waves into Alcator C-Mod's high-density H-mode plasmas has led to enhanced global energy confinement by increasing pedestal temperature and pressure gradients, decreasing the separatrix density, modifying the pedestal radial electric field and rotation, and decreasing edge turbulence. These experiments indicate that edge LHRF can be used as an actuator to increase energy confinement via modification of boundary quantities. H98-factor increases of up to ∼35% (e.g., H₉₈ from 0.75 to 1.0) are seen when moderate amounts of LH power (P[subscript LH]/P[subscript tot] ∼ 0.15) are applied to H-modes of densities [n with line above it][subscript e] ∼ 3 × 10²⁰ m⁻³, corresponding to values ∼0.5 of the Greenwald density. However, the magnitude of the improvement is reduced if the confinement quality of the target H-mode plasma is already good (i.e., H₉₈ [superscript target] ∼ 1). Ray-tracing modeling and accessibility calculations for the LH waves indicate that they do not penetrate to the core. The LHRF power appears to be deposited in plasma boundary region, with a large fraction of the injected power increment appearing promptly on the outer divertor target. There is no evidence that the LH waves are driving current in these plasmas. The LHRF-actuated improvements are well correlated with suppressed pedestal density fluctuations in the 100–300 kHz range. There is also a correlation between the improved confinement and a drop in separatrix density, a correlation that is consistent with previous H-mode results with no LHRF., United States. Department of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Award DE-FC02-99ER54512), United States. Department of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Award DE-AC02-09CH11466)

Recent analysis of Gas Puff Imaging (GPI) data from Alcator C-Mod found blob velocities with a modified tracking time delay estimation (TDE). These results disagree with velocity analysis performed using direct Fourier methods. In this paper, the two analysis methods are compared. The implementations of these methods are explained, and direct comparisons using the same GPI data sets are presented to highlight the discrepancies in measured velocities. In order to understand the discrepancies, we present a code that generates synthetic sequences of images that mimic features of the experimental GPI images, with user-specified input values for structure (blob) size and velocity. This allows quantitative comparison of the TDE and Fourier analysis methods, which reveals their strengths and weaknesses. We found that the methods agree for structures of any size as long as all structures move at the same velocity and disagree when there is significant nonlinear dispersion or when structures appear to move in opposite directions. Direct Fourier methods used to extract poloidal velocities give incorrect results when there is a significant radial velocity component and are subject to the barber pole effect. Tracking TDE techniques give incorrect velocity measurements when there are features moving at significantly different speeds or in different directions within the same field of view. Finally, we discuss the limitations and appropriate use of each of methods and applications to the relationship between blob size and velocity., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (1122374)

This paper presents an overview of recent highlights from research on Alcator C-Mod. Significant progress has been made across all research areas over the last two years, with particular emphasis on divertor physics and power handling, plasma–material interaction studies, edge localized mode-suppressed pedestal dynamics, core transport and turbulence, and RF heating and current drive utilizing ion cyclotron and lower hybrid tools. Specific results of particular relevance to ITER include: inner wall SOL transport studies that have led, together with results from other experiments, to the change of the detailed shape of the inner wall in ITER; runaway electron studies showing that the critical electric field required for runaway generation is much higher than predicted from collisional theory; core tungsten impurity transport studies reveal that tungsten accumulation is naturally avoided in typical C-Mod conditions., United States. Department of Energy (DE-FC02-99ER54512-CMOD), United States. Department of Energy (DE-AC02-09CH11466), United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-96ER-54373), United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-94ER54235)

The efficiency of LHCD on Alcator C-Mod drops exponentially with line average density. At reactor relevant densities (> 1 · 1020 [m[-3 superscript]]) no measurable current is driven. While a number of causes have been suggested, no specific mechanism has been shown to be responsible for the loss of current drive at high density. Fast modulation of the LH power was used to isolate and quantify the LHCD deposition within the plasma. Measurements from these plasmas provide unique evidence for determining a root cause. Modulation of LH power in steady plasmas exhibited no correlated change in the core temperature. A correlated, prompt response in the edge suggests that the loss in efficiency is related to a edge absorption mechanism. This follows previous results which found the generation of n||-independent SOL currents. Multiple Langmuir probe array measurements of the conducted heat conclude that the lost power is deposited near the last closed flux surface. The heat flux induced by LH waves onto the outer divertor is calculated. Changes in the neutral pressure, ionization and hard X-ray emission at high density highlight the importance of the active divertor in the loss of efficiency. Results of this study implicate a mechanism which may occur over multiple passes, leading to power absorption near the LCFS.

New measurements of electron temperature fluctuations associated with the weakly coherent mode (WCM) during improved mode, or I-mode plasmas (Whyte et al 2010 Nucl. Fusion. 50 105005) at Alcator C-Mod (Marmar et al 2007 Fusion. Sci. Technol. 51 3261) are presented in this paper. The measurements are made with a 32-channel, high-resolution profile electron cyclotron emission radiometer. The WCM electron temperature fluctuations are localized to a 1 cm region inside the last closed flux surface. The WCM electron temperature fluctuation level is measured in several different I-mode discharges and is in the range 1% [~ over T][subscript e/T[subscript e] < 2%, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the WCM density fluctuation level. The WCM edge fluctuations observed in I-mode are believed to play a role in increasing particle transport but not energy transport in the edge of I-mode plasmas. The large difference between normalized density and electron temperature fluctuation amplitudes provides new evidence that the WCM fluctuations can separately affect energy and particle transport., United States. Dept. of Energy (DE-FC02-99-ER54512-CMOD)

Growth of tungsten nano-tendrils ('fuzz') has been observed for the first time in the divertor region of a high-power density tokamak experiment. After 14 consecutive helium L-mode discharges in Alcator C-Mod, the tip of a tungsten Langmuir probe at the outer strike point was fully covered with a layer of nano-tendrils. The thickness of the individual nano-tendrils (50–100 nm) and the depth of the layer (600 ± 150 nm) are consistent with observations from experiments on linear plasma devices. The observation of tungsten fuzz in a tokamak may have important implications for material erosion, dust formation, divertor lifetime and tokamak operations in next-step devices., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award DMR-08-19762), United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-SC00-02060), United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract DE-FC02-99ER54512)

Parametric dependences of the heat flux footprint on the outer divertor target plate are explored in EDA H-mode and ohmic L-mode plasmas over a wide range of parameters with attached plasma conditions. Heat flux profile shapes are found to be independent of toroidal field strength, independent of power flow along magnetic field lines and insensitive to x-point topology (single-null versus double-null). The magnitudes and widths closely follow that of the “upstream” pressure profile, which are correlated to plasma thermal energy content and plasma current. Heat flux decay lengths near the strike-point in H- and L-mode plasmas scale approximately with the inverse of plasma current, with a diminished dependence at high collisionality in L-mode. Consistent with previous studies, pressure gradients in the boundary scale with plasma current squared, holding the magnetohydrodynamic ballooning parameter approximately invariant at fixed collisionality—strong evidence that critical-gradient transport physics plays a key role in setting the power exhaust channel., United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-AC52-06NA25396), United States. Dept. of Energy (Coop. Agreement DE-FC02-99ER54512)

High-pressure noble gas jet injection is a mitigation technique which potentially satisfies the requirements of fast response time and reliability, without degrading subsequent discharges. Previously reported gas jet experiments on DIII-D showed good success at reducing deleterious disruption effects. In this paper, results of recent gas jet disruption mitigation experiments on Alcator C-Mod and DIII-D are reported. Jointly, these experiments have greatly improved the understanding of gas jet dynamics and the processes involved in mitigating disruption effects. In both machines, the sequence of events following gas injection is observed to be quite similar: the jet neutrals stop near the plasma edge, the edge temperature collapses and large MHD modes are quickly destabilized, mixing the hot plasma core with the edge impurity ions and radiating away the plasma thermal energy. High radiated power fractions are achieved, thus reducing the conducted heat loads to the chamber walls and divertor. A significant (2 × or more) reduction in halo current is also observed. Runaway electron generation is small or absent. These similar results in two quite different tokamaks are encouraging for the applicability of this disruption mitigation technique to ITER., United States. Dept. of Energy (Coop. Agreements DE-FC02-99ER54512 and DE-FC02-04ER54698, Grants DE-FG02-04ER54758 and DE-FG02-04ER54762, and Contracts DE-AC05-00OR22725, W-7405-ENG-48, and W-7405-ENG-36)

The mitigation of divertor heat fluxes is an active topic of investigation on existing tokamaks. One approach uses radiation, both inside and outside the last closed flux surface (LCFS), to convert plasma thermal energy, usually directed towards dedicated plasma facing components, to soft X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, spread over a much larger surface area. Recent enhanced D-α H-mode experiments on Alcator C-Mod varied the ICRF input power and radiative power losses via impurity seeding to demonstrate that normalized energy confinement depends strongly on the difference between input power and the radiated power inside the LCFS. These investigations also show that when seeded with either Ne or N2, a factor of two and higher reduction in outer divertor heat flux is achieved while maintaining H[subscript 98,y2] ∼ 1.0. Conversely, when seeding with Ar, confinement is limited to H[subscript 98,y2] ∼ 0.8 for a similar level of exhaust power., United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE Contract Number DEFC0299ER54512)

With fusion device performance hinging on the edge pedestal pressure, it is imperative to experimentally understand the physical mechanism dictating the pedestal characteristics and to validate and improve pedestal predictive models. This Letter reports direct evidence of density and magnetic fluctuations showing the stiff onset of an edge instability leading to the saturation of the pedestal on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. Edge stability analyses indicate that the pedestal is unstable to both ballooning mode and kinetic ballooning mode in agreement with observations., United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract DE-FC02-99ER54512), Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Postdoctoral Research Program)

Impurity contamination and localized heat loads associated with ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) antenna operation are among the most challenging issues for ICRF utilization.. Another challenge is maintaining maximum coupled power through plasma variations including edge localized modes (ELMs) and confinement transitions. Here, we report on an experimental assessment of a field aligned (FA) antenna with respect to impurity contamination, impurity sources, RF enhanced heat flux and load tolerance. In addition, we compare the modification of the scrape of layer (SOL) plasma potential of the FA antenna to a conventional, toroidally aligned (TA) antenna, in order to explore the underlying physics governing impurity contamination linked to ICRF heating. The FA antenna is a 4-strap ICRF antenna where the current straps and antenna enclosure sides are perpendicular to and the Faraday screen rods are parallel to the total magnetic field. In principle, alignment with respect to the total magnetic field minimizes integrated E∥ (electric field along a magnetic field line) via symmetry. Consistent with expectations, we observed that the impurity contamination and impurity source at the FA antenna are reduced compared to the TA antenna. In both L and H-mode discharges, the radiated power is 20–30% lower for a FA-antenna heated discharge than a discharge heated with the TA-antennas. Further we observe that the fraction of RF energy deposited upon the antenna is less than 0.4 % of the total injected RF energy in dipole phasing. The total deposited energy increases significantly when the FA antenna is operated in monopole phasing. The FA antenna also exhibits an unexpected load tolerance for ELMs and confinement transitions compared to the TA antennas. However, inconsistent with expectations, we observe RF induced plasma potentials to be nearly identical for FA and TA antennas when operated in dipole phasing. In monopole phasing, the FA antenna has the highest plasma potenti, United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE award DE-FC02-99ER54512), United States. Dept. of Energy (Fusion Energy Postdoctoral Research Program administered by ORISE)

We report extended studies of the I-mode regime [Whyte et al., Nucl. Fusion 50, 105005 (2010)] obtained in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [Marmar et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 51(3), 3261 (2007)]. This regime, usually accessed with unfavorable ion B × ∇B drift, features an edge thermal transport barrier without a strong particle transport barrier. Steady I-modes have now been obtained with favorable B × ∇B drift, by using specific plasma shapes, as well as with unfavorable drift over a wider range of shapes and plasma parameters. With favorable drift, power thresholds are close to the standard scaling for L–H transitions, while with unfavorable drift they are ∼ 1.5–3 times higher, increasing with Ip. Global energy confinement in both drift configurations is comparable to H-mode scalings, while density profiles and impurity confinement are close to those in L-mode. Transport analysis of the edge region shows a decrease in edge χeff, by typically a factor of 3, between L- and I-mode. The decrease correlates with a drop in mid-frequency fluctuations (f ∼ 50–150 kHz) observed on both density and magnetics diagnostics. Edge fluctuations at higher frequencies often increase above L-mode levels, peaking at f ∼ 250 kHz. This weakly coherent mode is clearest and has narrowest width (Δf/f ∼ 0.45) at low q95 and high Tped, up to 1 keV. The Er well in I-mode is intermediate between L- and H-mode and is dominated by the diamagnetic contribution in the impurity radial force balance, without the Vpol shear typical of H-modes., United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract No. DE-FG03-96ER54373), United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract No. DEFC02- 99ER54512)

A compilation of computer programs useful in the analysis and design of aerospace vehicles. Technical areas covered include: aerodynamics; flight control; vehicle dynamics; crew escape; vehicle structures; vehicle subsystems (i.e. landing gear); preliminary design and analysis; mathematical aids to analysis. This report supersedes Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory Technical Report AFFDL-TR-74-26, 'A Library of Computer Programs in Flight Vehicle Technology, 1973.'