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  1. A Gaussian process guide for signal regression in magnetic fusion

    Abstract Extracting reliable information from diagnostic data in tokamaks is critical for understanding, analyzing, and controlling the behavior of fusion plasmas and validating models describing that behavior. Recent interest within the fusion community has focused on the use of principled statistical methods, such as Gaussian process regression (GPR), to attempt to develop sharper, more reliable, and more rigorous tools for examining the complex observed behavior in these systems. While GPR is an enormously powerful tool, there is also the danger of drawing fragile, or inconsistent conclusions from naive GPR fits that are not driven by principled treatments. Here we reviewmore » the fundamental concepts underlying GPR in a way that may be useful for broad-ranging applications in fusion science. We also revisit how GPR is developed for profile fitting in tokamaks. We examine various extensions and targeted modifications applicable to experimental observations in the edge of the DIII-D tokamak. Finally, we discuss best practices for applying GPR to fusion data.« less
  2. Integration of high confinement, high poloidal beta plasma with dual radiated power and detachment controls for divertor protection and ELM suppression

    Divertor detachment without serious core confinement quality loss in DIII-D’s high poloidal β scenario has been combined with impurity-induced ELM mitigation without disruption. Use of Ne previously granted access to a detached, non-ELMing regime that retained high confinement quality due to stimulation of Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) growth, but suffered from on-going core fuel dilution and high disruptivity. Excess Ne accumulation in the core plasma has now been avoided by feeding back core radiated power ($$P_{rad}$$) measurements to control Ne seeding, rather than using attachment fraction ($$A_{frac}$$) control with Ne; this also reduces disruptivity. At the same time, N2 seedingmore » is used in a feedback loop with $$A_{frac}$$ measurements, which previously posed low disruption risk. In this way, the effect of Ne in the core is managed while avoiding excess seeding, and N2 acts to correct for any excess heat exhaust that might interfere with detachment. The average Ne flow rate was 38% of what was used in pure Ne $$A_{frac}$$ control, plus average N2 flow that was 43% of pure N2 $$A_{frac}$$ control, even while meeting an even deeper detachment target. Meanwhile, a steep pressure gradient in the core plasma reduces sensitivity to impurity-induced degradation of the pedestal and reasonable confinement quality was maintained despite operational challenges that blocked formation of an ITB in these experiments.« less
  3. Enhancement of detachment control with simplified real-time modelling on the KSTAR tokamak

    Absmore » tract Detachment control based on ion saturation current I sat measurements from Langmuir probes (LPs) is implemented in the KSTAR tokamak and shown to be capable of following dynamic and constant target trajectories with good accuracy, in H-mode, by moderating the flow rate of nitrogen or deuterium. I sat controllers normalize I sat in order to form attachment fraction ( A frac ) as their control parameter. The KSTAR implementation of A frac control differs from previous work in that it continuously calculates a model for attached I sat and uses that as the denominator in A frac , whereas prior implementations either record peak I sat at rollover as they pass it or take estimated I s a t , r o l l o v e r as a manual input prior to the shot. The KSTAR controller therefore does not need to keep track of rollover status and keep separate targets for pre- and post-rollover states, and it can automatically adapt to changes in scenario at any time. It is also less vulnerable to noise as it will not lock in an outlier as a rollover point.« less
  4. Effect of magnetic geometry on the energy partition between ions and electrons in the scrape-off layer of magnetic fusion devices

    A universal energy partition mechanism between ions and electrons has been confirmed to exist in the scrape-off layer of both the WEST tokamak and the W7-X stellarator. A peaked plasma density structure induced by an infinite magnetic connection length structure is observed to destroy this dependence and enhance the local ion and electron temperature ratio in the stellarator. Here, a theoretical analysis reveals that the ratio of ion and electron parallel heat conduction is predominant in determining this universality, while electrons would further be cooled in the density-peaked region.
  5. Validation of the strike point position estimation with the local expansion method for MAST upgrade on the DIII-D tokamak

    A local expansion method has been proposed for estimating the strike point position for the advanced divertor configuration on the MAST Upgrade tokamak. The paper discusses the application and assesses the performance of the technique on a long-legged divertor plasma configuration on an operating device - the DIII-D tokamak. A comparison of the spatial location of the outer strike point estimated with the local expansion method against the plasma boundary reconstruction and divertor diagnostics on the DIII-D tokamak is reported. A good agreement with the equilibrium reconstruction and diagnostic data is achieved with respect to estimation of the spatial locationmore » of the outer strike point for the long-legged divertor plasma discharge.« less
  6. Impurity leakage and radiative cooling in the first nitrogen and neon seeding study in the closed DIII-D SAS configuration

    A comparative study of nitrogen versus neon has been carried out to analyze the impact of the two radiative species on power dissipation, SOL impurity distribution, divertor and pedestal characteristics. The experimental results show that N remains compressed in the divertor, thereby providing high radiative losses without affecting the pedestal profiles and displacing carbon as dominant radiator. Neon, instead, radiates more upstream than N thus reducing the power flux through the separatrix leading to a reduced ELM frequency and compression in the divertor. A significant amount of neon is measured in the plasma core leading to a steeper density gradient.more » The different behavior between the two impurities is confirmed by SOLPS-ITER modeling which for the first time at DIII-D includes multiple impurity species and a treatment of full drifts, currents and neutral–neutral collisions. The impurity transport in the SOL is studied in terms of the parallel momentum balance showing that N is mostly retained in the divertor whereas Ne leaks out consistent with its higher ionization potential and longer mean free path. This is also in agreement with the enrichment factor calculations which indicate lower divertor enrichment for neon. The strong ionization source characterizing the SAS divertor causes a reversal of the main ions and impurity flows. The flow reversal together with plasma drifts and the effect of the thermal force contribute significantly in the shift of the impurity stagnation point affecting impurity leakage. This work provides a demonstration of the impurity leakage mechanism in a closed divertor structure and the consequent impact on pedestal. Since carbon is an intrinsic radiator at DIII-D, in this paper we have also demonstrated the different role of carbon in the N vs Ne seeded cases both in the experiments and in the numerical modeling. Here, carbon contributes more when neon seeding is injected compared to when nitrogen is used. Finally, the results highlight the importance of accompanying experimental studies with numerical modeling of plasma flows, drifts and ionization profile to determine the details of the SOL impurity transport as the latter may vary with changes in divertor regime and geometry. In the cases presented here, plasma drifts and flow reversal caused by high level of closure in the slot upper divertor at DIII-D play an important role in the underlined mechanism.« less
  7. Achievements of actively controlled divertor detachment compatible with sustained high confinement core in DIII-D and EAST

    The compatibility of efficient divertor detachment with high-performance core plasma is vital to the development of magnetically controlled fusion energy. The joint research on the EAST and DIII-D tokamaks demonstrates successful integration of divertor detachment with excellent core plasma confinement quality, a milestone towards solving the critical plasma–wall-interaction (PWI) issue and core-edge integration for ITER and future reactors. In EAST, actively controlled partial detachment with Tet,div ~ 5 eV around the strike point and H98 > 1 in different H-mode scenarios including the high βP H-mode scenario have been achieved with ITER-like tungsten divertor, by optimizing the detachment access conditionmore » and performing detailed experiments for core-edge integration. For active long-pulse detachment feedback control, a 30 s H-mode operation with detachment-control duration being 25 s has been successfully achieved in EAST. DIII-D has achieved actively controlled fully detached divertor with low plasma electron temperature (Tet,div ≤ 5 eV across the entire divertor target) and low particle flux (degree of detachment, DoD > 3), simultaneously with very high core performance (βN ~3, βP > 2 and H98 ~ 1.5) in the high βP scenario being developed for ITER and future reactors. The high-βP high confinement scenario is characterized by an internal transport barrier (ITB) at large radius and a weak edge transport barrier (ETB, or pedestal), which are synergistically self-organized. Both the high-βP scenario and impurity seeding facilitate divertor detachment. The detachment access leads to the reduction of ETB, which facilitates the development of an even stronger ITB at large radius in the high βP scenario. Thus, this strong large radius ITB enables the core confinement improvement during detachment. In conclusion, these significant joint DIII-D and EAST advances on the compatibility of high confinement core and detached divertor show a great potential for achieving a high-performance core plasma suitable for long-pulse operation of fusion reactors with controllable steady-state PWIs.« less
  8. Development of an integrated core–edge scenario using the super H-mode

    An optimized pedestal regime called the super-H (SH) mode is leveraged to couple a fusion relevant core plasma with a high density scrape-off layer appropriate for realistic reactor power exhaust solutions. Recent DIII-D experiments have expanded the operating space of the SH regime using advanced control algorithms and investigated optimization of impurity seeding, deuterium gas puffing, and 3D magnetic perturbations. Simultaneous real-time control of the pedestal density and radiated power with in-vessel coils and nitrogen seeding enable optimal coupled divertor and pedestal conditions. Four case studies are analysed with varied levels of radiated power in the divertor volume ranging frommore » 0 (no seeding) to 8.5 MW radiated from carbon and nitrogen emission. Plasmas with a 4.5 MW radiated power target establish a radiative mantle, leading to divertor temperatures of ~16 eV while maintaining SH-mode, and with only marginal impact on the pedestal and core performance. Increased levels of N2 seeding with a 7.5 MW radiated power target facilitate detachment onset and divertor temperatures <5 eV, with no degradation in stored energy and the operational point remaining inside the SH-mode channel for >2.5 τE. Finally, a 8.5 MW radiated power target leads to partial detachment, which is so far associated with the loss of access to SH-mode pedestal conditions.« less
  9. The achievement of the Te,div feedback control by CD4 seeding on EAST

    A multi-function divertor feedback control system has been built on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) to treat the divertor heat load issue. With the real-time data of the Langmuir probes and the impurity seeding, the divertor electron temperature (Te,div) is well controlled to achieve the partial detachment phase. The first trial of the CD4 seeding for the Te,div reduction has been achieved on EAST long-pulse discharge. In the seeding phase, the Te,div was maintained close to 5 eV, and the surface temperature of the target plate (Tsurface,div) had a reduction of about 150° C. The plasma stored energy had amore » reduction in the control phase, so it is necessary to find a way to keep the good plasma confinement in the next step. The CD4 injection also mitigated the low hybrid wave coupling rate in some degree. The big volume of the CD4 injection lifted the Greenwald density fraction from ~0.4 to ~0.7, which made the SOL into high recycling state. As a result, most of the injected carbon particles were in the high ionized state, and with the lower of the Te,div, the tungsten line emission was suppressed obviously.« less
  10. Experimental study of the influence of gas puff locations on H-mode boundary plasmas with argon seeding on EAST

    To investigate the optimal scenario of impurity seeding to obtain divertor plasma detachment for target protection, experiments with Ar&D2 seeding from two different poloidal locations, the upper outer (UO) divertor target and lower outer (LO) target, were carried out on EAST. Partial energy detachment (the electron temperature near the strike point Te,spt ≤ 10 eV) were obtained with Ar&D2 mixture puffing from the UO target and, for the first time, from the LO target into H-mode plasmas in the upper single null (USN) configuration. The peak heat flux qt on the UO target was significantly reduced (by ~80%). The rollovermore » of ion flux density js did not appear probably due to insufficient momentum loss, which is independent of the puff locations. The poloidal asymmetries of particle and heat fluxes on the targets have also been investigated. The UO-dominant asymmetry of particle flux was reversed, while the UO-dominant asymmetry of heat flux was mitigated but not reversed. The plasma confinement dropped by only 14% and 8.2% in the LO-puff case and UO-puff case, respectively, during detachment. The high level of C may contributed greatly to the higher radiation in the bulk plasma region and the greater decline in WMHD in the LO-puff case.« less
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