Contrasting H-mode behaviour with fuelling and nitrogen seeding in the all-carbon and metallic versions of JET

An all-metal ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW), consisting of beryllium in the main chamber and tungsten surfaces in the divertor, has now been installed in JET to pursue low retention of fuel species and to explore the impact on next-step-relevant plasmas. Its implementation has offered a unique opportunity to compare behaviour with that in the previous all-Carbon lining (JET-C), notably for high-triangularity Type I H-modes with impurity seeding. This technique is recognised to be necessary for power handling both in ITER and in JET at full performance. Contrasting results are reported for closely-matched deuterium-fuelling plus nitrogen-seeding scans in each JET environment. Attention is focused upon neutral-beam-heated plasmas with total input power 15­17MW at 2.65T, 2.5MA, q95 3.5 , average triangularity d 0.4 , elongation k 1.7 and gas inputs spanning ranges 0.75 FD 3.3 , 0 FD 4.7 (1022 electrons / s assuming full ionisation). JET-C cases also included 1­2MW of central ion-cyclotron-resonance-frequency heating, so far absent from JET-ILW pulses, with possible consequences for respective core sawtooth and impurity-concentration results.Preprint of Paper to be submitted for publication in Proceedings of the 40th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, Espoo, Finland 1st July 2013 - 5th July 201

Dynamics of the edge transport barrier at plasma biasing on the CASTOR tokamak

A clear and reproducible transition to a regime with an improved particle confinement is routinely observed on the CASTOR tokamak, if the biasing electrode is inserted deep enough into the plasma (r/a ~ 0.5) and biased up to +250V. The steepening of the radial profiles of the plasma density and potential demonstrate the formation of a transport barrier just inside the last closed flux surface. Fast relaxations of the edge plasma parameters, with a frequency of about 10 kHz, are observed when the average radial electric field within the barrier prevails values of about 20 kV/m. A detailed analysis of the spatial-temporal behavior of these relaxations is presented.На токамаке CASTOR устойчиво наблюдается отчетливый и воспроизводимый переход в режим с улучшенным удержанием частиц при достаточно глубоком введении в плазму (r/a - 0,5) электрода, на который подаётся смещение до +250 В. У кручение радиальных профилей плотности плазмы и потенциала свидетельствуют об образовании транспортного барьера сразу внутри последней замкнутой магнитной поверхности. Наблюдаются быстрые релаксации параметров краевой плазмы с частотой около 10 кГц, когда среднее радиальное электрическое поле внутри барьера превышает значение около 20 кВ/м. Приводится обстоятельный анализ пространственно-временного поведения этих релаксаций.На токамаці CASTOR стійко спостерігається чіткий та відтворений перехід до режиму з поліпшеним утриманням частинок при достатньо глибокому введенні у плазму (r/a ~ 0,5) електрода, на який подано зміщення до +250 В. Радіальні профілі густини плазми та потенціалу стають більш крутими, що свідчить про створення потенціального бар'єру зразу усередині останньої замкненої магнітної поверхні. Спостерігаються швидкі релаксації параметрів крайової плазми з частотою порядку 10 кГц, коли середнє радіальне електричне поле усередині бар'єра перевищує значення приблизно 20 кВ/м. Надається докладний аналіз просторово-часової поведінки цих релаксацій

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

Model for screening of resonant magnetic perturbations by plasma in a realistic tokamak geometry and its impact on divertor strike points

This work addresses the question of the relation between strike-point splitting and magnetic stochasticity at the edge of a poloidally diverted tokamak in the presence of externally imposed magnetic perturbations. More specifically, ad-hoc helical current sheets are introduced in order to mimic a hypothetical screening of the external resonant magnetic perturbations by the plasma. These current sheets, which suppress magnetic islands, are found to reduce the amount of splitting expected at the target, which suggests that screening effects should be observable experimentally. Multiple screening current sheets reinforce each other, i.e. less current relative to the case of only one current sheet is required to screen the perturbation.Comment: Accepted in the Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Plasma Surface Interactions, to be published in Journal of Nuclear Materials. Version 2: minor formatting and text improvements, more results mentioned in the conclusion and abstrac

Modelling of tungsten erosion and deposition in the divertor of JET-ILW in comparison to experimental findings

The erosion, transport and deposition of tungsten in the outer divertor of JET-ILW has been studied for an HMode discharge with low frequency ELMs. For this specific case with an inter-ELM electron temperature at the strike point of about 20 eV, tungsten sputtering between ELMs is almost exclusively due to beryllium impurity and self-sputtering. However, during ELMs tungsten sputtering due to deuterium becomes important and even dominates. The amount of simulated local deposition of tungsten relative to the amount of sputtered tungsten in between ELMs is very high and reaches values of 99% for an electron density of 5E13 cm$^{-3}$ at the strike point and electron temperatures between 10 and 30 eV. Smaller deposition values are simulated with reduced electron density. The direction of the B-field significantly influences the local deposition and leads to a reduction if the E×B drift directs towards the scrape-off-layer. Also, the thermal force can reduce the tungsten deposition, however, an ion temperature gradient of about 0.1 eV/mm or larger is needed for a significant effect. The tungsten deposition simulated during ELMs reaches values of about 98% assuming ELM parameters according to free-streaming model. The measured WI emission profiles in between and within ELMs have been reproduced by the simulation. The contribution to the overall net tungsten erosion during ELMs is about 5 times larger than the one in between ELMs for the studied case. However, this is due to the rather low electron temperature in between ELMs, which leads to deuterium impact energies below the sputtering threshold for tungsten

Tritium distributions on W-coated divertor tiles used in the third JET ITER-like wall campaign

Tritium (T) distributions on tungsten (W)-coated plasma-facing tiles used in the third ITER-like wall campaign (2015–2016) of the Joint European Torus (JET) were examined by means of an imaging plate technique and β-ray induced x-ray spectrometry, and they were compared with the distributions after the second (2013–2014) campaign. Strong enrichment of T in beryllium (Be) deposition layers was observed after the second campaign. In contrast, T distributions after the third campaign was more uniform though Be deposition layers were visually recognized. The one of the possible explanations is enhanced desorption of T from Be deposition layers due to higher tile temperatures caused by higher energy input in the third campaign