A study of resistive peeling–ballooning modes across spherical tokamaks

Kleiner, A.; Imada, K.; Ebrahimi, F.; Ferraro, N. M.; Haskey, S. R.; Kogan, L.; Pankin, A.

doi:10.1088/1361-6587/adf91a

A study of resistive peeling–ballooning modes across spherical tokamaks

Journal Article · Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/adf91a· OSTI ID:2586708

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Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); University of York (United Kingdom)
UKAEA, Culham Campus, Oxon (United Kingdom)

We investigate how non-ideal-magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) effects, in particular plasma resistivity, impact the peeling–ballooning stability thresholds in spherical tokamaks. This analysis follows the discovery of resistive kink-peeling modes in ELMing National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) discharges. In the present study we extend this modeling to ELMing pulses in the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) and MAST—Upgrade (MAST-U), where we find a clear resistive scaling for peeling–ballooning modes. While in NSTX ideal-MHD predicts stability for ELMing discharges, in MAST-U we find that the plasma is slightly unstable to peeling–ballooning modes, but is fully stabilized once diamagnetic effects are considered in terms of a growth rate normalization. A resistive power law scaling is calculated for these modes on MAST-U, which lies in between that of tearing modes and resistive interchange modes. A comparison between M3D-C1 and NIMROD shows reasonable agreement for this scaling. Resistivity destabilizes the modes and the peeling–ballooning unstable domain is considerably expanded in both, MAST and MAST-U. In addition to the MAST/-U pulses we also analyze resistive PB stability in a NSTX-similarity discharge on DIII-D. While having a different aspect ratio from NSTX, this discharge uses NSTX-like shaping parameters, toroidal field and plasma current. By considering these discharges alongside NSTX cases, we identify conditions influencing the onset of resistive peeling–ballooning modes. Furthermore, our findings indicate that magnetic shear in the pedestal region is closely linked to the emergence of resistive edge modes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); EPSRC Energy Programme

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC02-09CH11466; FC02-04ER54698

OSTI ID:: 2586708

Journal Information:: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Journal Name: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 67; ISSN 0741-3335; ISSN 1361-6587

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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