HIGH FUSION PERFORMANCE IN SUPER H-MODE EXPERIMENTS ON ALCATOR C-MOD AND DIII-D

Snyder, P.B.; Hughes, J.W.; Osborne, T.H.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Solomon, W.M.; Knolker, M.; Eldon, D.; Evans, T.; Golfinopoulos, T.; Grierson, B.A.; Groebner, R.J.; Hubbard, A.E.; Kolemen, E.; LaBombard, B.; Laggner, F.M.; Meneghini, O.; Mordijck, S.; Petrie, T.; Scott, S.; Wang, H.Q.; Wilson, H.R.; Zhu, Y.B.

doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ab235b

HIGH FUSION PERFORMANCE IN SUPER H-MODE EXPERIMENTS ON ALCATOR C-MOD AND DIII-D

Journal Article · Sun Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2017 · Nuclear Fusion

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab235b· OSTI ID:1489822

Snyder, P.B. ^[1]; Hughes, J.W. ^[2]; Osborne, T.H. ^[3]; Paz-Soldan, C. ^[3]; Solomon, W.M. ^[3]; Knolker, M. ^[4]; Eldon, D. ^[3]; Evans, T. ^[3]; Golfinopoulos, T. ^[2]; Grierson, B.A. ^[4]; Groebner, R.J. ^[3]; Hubbard, A.E. ^[2]; Kolemen, E. ^[4]; LaBombard, B. ^[2]; Laggner, F.M. ^[4]; Meneghini, O. ^[3]; Mordijck, S. ^[5]; Petrie, T. ^[3]; Scott, S. ^[4]; Wang, H.Q. ^[3] more »

General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); General Atomics
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, MA (United States)
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (United States)
University of York (United Kingdom); Culham Center for Fusion Energy, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxon (United Kingdom)
Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

We report that the “Super H-Mode” regime is predicted to enable pedestal height and fusion performance substantially higher than standard H-Mode operation. This regime exists due to a bifurcation of the pedestal pressure, as a function of density, that is predicted by the EPED model to occur in strongly shaped plasmas above a critical pedestal density. Experiments on Alcator C-Mod and DIII-D have achieved access to the Super H-Mode (and Near Super H) regime, and obtained very high pedestal pressure, including the highest pedestal pressure ever achieved on a tokamak (p_ped~80kPa) in C-Mod experiments operating near the ITER magnetic field. DIII-D Super H experiments have demonstrated high performance, including the highest stored energy in the present configuration of DIII-D (W~2.2-3.2MJ), while utilizing only about half of the available heating power (P_heat~7-12 MW). These DIII-D experiments have obtained the highest value of peak fusion gain, Q_DT,equiv~0.5, ever achieved on a medium scale (R<2m) tokamak. Sustained high performance operation (β_N~2.9, H₉₈~1.6) has been achieved utilizing n=3 magnetic perturbations for density and impurity control. High pedestal and global performance has been maintained in the presence of deuterium and nitrogen gas puffing, which enables a more radiative divertor condition. Lastly, Super H-Mode access is predicted for ITER and expected, based on both theoretical prediction and observed normalized performance, to allow ITER to achieve its performance goals (Q=10) at I_p < 15MA, and to enable more compact, cost effective pilot plant and reactor designs.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-95ER54309; FC02-04ER54698; FC02-99ER54512; FC02-06ER54873; SC0014264; SC0017992

OSTI ID:: 1489822

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1572159
OSTI ID: 22805956
OSTI ID: 22929820

Journal Information:: Nuclear Fusion, Journal Name: Nuclear Fusion Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 59; ISSN 0029-5515

Publisher:: IOP ScienceCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (22)

Advances in radiated power control at DIII-D Eldon, D.; Kolemen, E.; Humphreys, D. A. Nuclear Materials and Energy, Vol. 18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2019.01.010	journal	January 2019
Measurements of the neutron source strength at DIII-D Heidbrink, W. W.; Taylor, P. L.; Phillips, J. A. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 68, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1147646	journal	January 1997
Development and validation of a predictive model for the pedestal height Snyder, P. B.; Groebner, R. J.; Leonard, A. W. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3122146	journal	May 2009
H-mode pedestal scaling in DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade, and JET Beurskens, M. N. A.; Osborne, T. H.; Schneider, P. A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3593008	journal	May 2011
The EPED pedestal model and edge localized mode-suppressed regimes: Studies of quiescent H-mode and development of a model for edge localized mode suppression via resonant magnetic perturbations Snyder, P. B.; Osborne, T. H.; Burrell, K. H. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3699623	journal	May 2012
The quiescent H-mode regime for high performance edge localized mode-stable operation in future burning plasmasa) Garofalo, A. M.; Burrell, K. H.; Eldon, D. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921406	journal	May 2015
Exploration of the Super H-mode regime on DIII-D and potential advantages for burning plasma devices Solomon, W. M.; Snyder, P. B.; Bortolon, A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4944822	journal	March 2016
Integrated fusion simulation with self-consistent core-pedestal coupling Meneghini, O.; Snyder, P. B.; Smith, S. P. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4947204	journal	April 2016
A standard DT supershot simulation Budny, R. V. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 34, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/34/9/I06	journal	September 1994
Higher fusion power gain with profile control in DIII-D tokamak plasmas Lazarus, E. A.; Navratil, G. A.; Greenfield, C. M. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 37, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/37/1/I11	journal	January 1997
JT-60U high performance regimes Ishida, S.; Team, Jt-60 Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 39, Issue 9Y https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/39/9Y/301	journal	September 1999
The scientific success of JET Keilhacker, M.; Gibson, A.; Gormezano, C. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 41, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/41/12/217	journal	December 2001
Analysis of performance of the optimized divertor in ITER Kukushkin, A. S.; Pacher, H. D.; Loarte, A. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 49, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/49/7/075008	journal	May 2009
Pedestal stability comparison and ITER pedestal prediction Snyder, P. B.; Aiba, N.; Beurskens, M. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 49, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/49/8/085035	journal	July 2009
I-mode: an H-mode energy confinement regime with L-mode particle transport in Alcator C-Mod Whyte, D. G.; Hubbard, A. E.; Hughes, J. W. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 50, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/50/10/105005	journal	August 2010
A first-principles predictive model of the pedestal height and width: development, testing and ITER optimization with the EPED model Snyder, P. B.; Groebner, R. J.; Hughes, J. W. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/51/10/103016	journal	August 2011
Power requirements for superior H-mode confinement on Alcator C-Mod: experiments in support of ITER Hughes, J. W.; Loarte, A.; Reinke, M. L. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/51/8/083007	journal	June 2011
Pedestal structure and stability in H-mode and I-mode: a comparative study on Alcator C-Mod Hughes, J. W.; Snyder, P. B.; Walk, J. R. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/53/4/043016	journal	March 2013
Improved understanding of physics processes in pedestal structure, leading to improved predictive capability for ITER Groebner, R. J.; Chang, C. S.; Hughes, J. W. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/53/9/093024	journal	August 2013
The H-mode pedestal structure and its role on confinement in JET with a carbon and metal wall Leyland, M. J.; Beurskens, M. N. A.; Frassinetti, L. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/55/1/013019	journal	December 2014
Physics and performance of the I-mode regime over an expanded operating space on Alcator C-Mod Hubbard, A. E.; Baek, S. -G.; Brunner, D. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 57, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/aa8570	journal	October 2017
Access to a New Plasma Edge State with High Density and Pressures using the Quiescent H Mode Solomon, W. M.; Snyder, P. B.; Burrell, K. H. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.135001	journal	September 2014

Cited By (1)

27th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference: summary of sessions EX/C, EX/S and PPC Campbell, D. J. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab5cee	journal	January 2020

Similar Records

High fusion performance in Super H-mode experiments on Alcator C-Mod and DIII-D

Dataset · Wed May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · OSTI ID:1882423

Super H-mode: theoretical prediction and initial observations of a new high performance regime for tokamak operation

Journal Article · Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nuclear Fusion · OSTI ID:1373882

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

HIGH FUSION PERFORMANCE IN SUPER H-MODE EXPERIMENTS ON ALCATOR C-MOD AND DIII-D

Citation Formats

References (22)

Cited By (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects