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- Martin, P., et al.
(author)
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Overview of the RFX fusion science program
- 2011
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In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 51:9, s. 094023-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper summarizes the main achievements of the RFX fusion science program in the period between the 2008 and 2010 IAEA Fusion Energy Conferences. RFX-mod is the largest reversed field pinch in the world, equipped with a system of 192 coils for active control of MHD stability. The discovery and understanding of helical states with electron internal transport barriers and core electron temperature >1.5 keV significantly advances the perspectives of the configuration. Optimized experiments with plasma current up to 1.8 MA have been realized, confirming positive scaling. The first evidence of edge transport barriers is presented. Progress has been made also in the control of first-wall properties and of density profiles, with initial first-wall lithization experiments. Micro-turbulence mechanisms such as ion temperature gradient and micro-tearing are discussed in the framework of understanding gradient-driven transport in low magnetic chaos helical regimes. Both tearing mode and resistive wall mode active control have been optimized and experimental data have been used to benchmark numerical codes. The RFX programme also provides important results for the fusion community and in particular for tokamaks and stellarators on feedback control of MHD stability and on three-dimensional physics. On the latter topic, the result of the application of stellarator codes to describe three-dimensional reversed field pinch physics will be presented.
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| 2. |
- Chapman, I. T., et al.
(author)
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Power requirements for electron cyclotron current drive and ion cyclotron resonance heating for sawtooth control in ITER
- 2013
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In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 53:6, s. 066001-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 13MW of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) power deposited inside the q = 1 surface is likely to reduce the sawtooth period in ITER baseline scenario below the level empirically predicted to trigger neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs). However, since the ECCD control scheme is solely predicated upon changing the local magnetic shear, it is prudent to plan to use a complementary scheme which directly decreases the potential energy of the kink mode in order to reduce the sawtooth period. In the event that the natural sawtooth period is longer than expected, due to enhanced a particle stabilization for instance, this ancillary sawtooth control can be provided from >10MW of ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) power with a resonance just inside the q = 1 surface. Both ECCD and ICRH control schemes would benefit greatly from active feedback of the deposition with respect to the rational surface. If the q = 1 surface can be maintained closer to the magnetic axis, the efficacy of ECCD and ICRH schemes significantly increases, the negative effect on the fusion gain is reduced, and off-axis negative-ion neutral beam injection (NNBI) can also be considered for sawtooth control. Consequently, schemes to reduce the q = 1 radius are highly desirable, such as early heating to delay the current penetration and, of course, active sawtooth destabilization to mediate small frequent sawteeth and retain a small q = 1 radius. Finally, there remains a residual risk that the ECCD + ICRH control actuators cannot keep the sawtooth period below the threshold for triggering NTMs (since this is derived only from empirical scaling and the control modelling has numerous caveats). If this is the case, a secondary control scheme of sawtooth stabilization via ECCD + ICRH + NNBI, interspersed with deliberate triggering of a crash through auxiliary power reduction and simultaneous pre-emptive NTM control by off-axis ECCD has been considered, permitting long transient periods with high fusion gain. The power requirements for the necessary degree of sawtooth control using either destabilization or stabilization schemes are expected to be within the specification of anticipated ICRH and ECRH heating in ITER, provided the requisite power can be dedicated to sawtooth control.
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| 3. |
- Papp, Gergely, 1985, et al.
(author)
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Low frequency sawtooth precursor in ASDEX Upgrade
- 2011
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In: Proceedings of 5th IAEA Technical Meeting on the Theory of Plasma Instabilities. ; , s. B4.1-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present paper describes the precursor activity observed in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamakbefore pronounced sawtooth crashes in various neutral beam heated plasmas, utilizing the soft X-raydiagnostic. Besides the well-known (m, n) = (1, 1) internal kink mode and its harmonics, a Low FrequencySawtooth Precursor (LFSP) mode is studied in detail. Indications of a second, lower frequency sawtoothprecursor have been reported on JET and HT-7 as well. Throughout the studied sawtooth crashes, thepower of the lower frequency mode rose by several orders of magnitude just before the crash with a growthrate of 400 1/s, which is shown to be consistent with the growth rate of a resistive core mode. Besidesits temporal behaviour, its spatial structure was estimated with a wavelet based method used on SXRmeasurements, and the most likely value was found to be (m, n) = (1, 1). Power modulation of this modeis found to correlate with the power modulation of the (1,1) kink mode in the quasi-stationary intervals,and significant bicoherence was measured, both indicating non-linear interaction. The frequency ratio ofthe two modes was calculated with an instantaneous frequency following algorithm and was found to bein the 0.5-0.7 range. The LFSP is expected to play a role in the partial magnetic reconnection process,hence every sawtooth crash model involving such reconnection may be affected by the existence of theLFSP.
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