Experimental confirmation of efficient island divertor operation and successful neoclassical transport optimization in Wendelstein 7-X

We present recent highlights from the most recent operation phases of Wendelstein 7-X, the most advanced stellarator in the world. Stable detachment with good particle exhaust, low impurity content, and energy confinement times exceeding 100 ms, have been maintained for tens of seconds. Pellet fueling allows for plasma phases with reduced ion-temperature-gradient turbulence, and during such phases, the overall confinement is so good (energy confinement times often exceeding 200 ms) that the attained density and temperature profiles would not have been possible in less optimized devices, since they would have had neoclassical transport losses exceeding the heating applied in W7-X. This provides proof that the reduction of neoclassical transport through magnetic field optimization is successful. W7-X plasmas generally show good impurity screening and high plasma purity, but there is evidence of longer impurity confinement times during turbulence-suppressed phases.EC/H2020/633053/EU/Implementation of activities described in the Roadmap to Fusion during Horizon 2020 through a Joint programme of the members of the EUROfusion consortium/ EUROfusio

Status of the R&D activities to the design of an ITER core CXRS diagnostic system

The CXRS (Charge-eXchange Recombination Spectroscopy) diagnostic for the core plasma of ITER will be designed to provide observation of the dedicated diagnostic beam (DNB) over a wide radial range, roughly from a normalised radius r/a = 0.7 to close to the plasma axis. The collected light will be transported through the Upper Port Plug #3 (UPP3) to a bundle of fibres and ultimately to a set of remote spectrometers. The design is particularly challenging in view of the ITER environment of particle, heat and neutron fluxes, temperature cycles, electromagnetic loads, vibrations, expected material degradation and fatigue, constraints against tritium penetration, integration in the plug and limited opportunities for maintenance. Moreover, a high performance (étendue × transmission, dynamic range) is expected for the port plug system since the beam attenuation is large and the background light omnipresent, especially in terms of bremsstrahlung, line radiation and reflections. The present contribution will give an overview of the current status and activities which deal with the core CXRS system, summarising the investigations which have taken place before entering the actual development and design phase

Studies of protection and recovery techniques of diagnostic mirrors for ITER

In optical diagnostic systems of ITER, mirrors will be used to guide the light from plasma towards detectors and cameras. The mirrors will be subjected to erosion due to fast particles and to deposition of impurities from the plasma which will affect adversely the mirror reflectivity and therefore must be suppressed or mitigated at the maximum possible extent. Predictive modeling envisages the successful suppression of deposition in the diagnostic ducts with fins trapping the impurities on their way towards mirrors located in the end of these ducts. To validate modeling predictions, cylindrical and cone-shaped diagnostic ducts were exposed in TEXTOR for 3960 s of plasma operation. After exposure, no drastic suppression of deposition was observed in the cylindrical ducts with fins. At the same time, no detectable deposition was found on the mirrors located at the end of cone-shaped ducts outlining the advantages of the cone geometry. Analyses of exposure provide evidence that the contamination of exposed mirrors was due to wall conditioning discharges and not due to working plasma exposure. Cleaning by plasma sputtering was performed on molybdenum mirrors pre-coated with a 100 nm thick aluminum film. Aluminum was used as a proxy of beryllium. During exposure in electron cyclotron resonance-generated helium plasma, the entire coating was sputtered within nine hours, leaving no trace of aluminum and leading to the full recovery of the specular reflectivity without detrimental effects on the mirror surface