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Title: Enhanced H-mode pedestals with lithium injection in DIII-D

Journal Article · · Nuclear Fusion
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [5];  [2];  [1]
  1. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  3. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  4. Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Periods of edge localized mode (ELM)-free H-mode with increased pedestal pressure and width were observed in the DIII-D tokamak when density fluctuations localized to the region near the separatrix were present. Injection of a powder of 45 μm diameter lithium particles increased the duration of the enhanced pedestal phases to up to 350 ms, and also increased the likelihood of a transition to the enhanced phase. Lithium injection at a level sufficient for triggering the extended enhanced phases resulted in significant lithium in the plasma core, but carbon and other higher Z impurities as well as radiated power levels were reduced. Recycling of the working deuterium gas appeared unaffected by this level of lithium injection. The ion scale, kθ ρs ~ 0.1–0.2, density fluctuations propagated in the electron drift direction with f ~ 80 kHz and occurred in bursts every ~1 ms. The fluctuation bursts correlated with plasma loss resulting in a flattening of the pressure profile in a region near the separatrix. This localized flattening 2 allowed higher overall pedestal pressure at the peeling-ballooning stability limit and higher pressure than expected under the EPED model due to reduction of the pressure gradient below the “ballooning critical profile”. Furthermore, reduction of the ion pressure by lithium dilution may contribute to the long ELM-free periods.

Research Organization:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
Contributing Organization:
The DIII-D Team
Grant/Contract Number:
FC02-04ER54698; FG02-89ER53296; FG02-08ER54999; AC02-09CH11466; FG02-99ER54917; AC52-07NA27344; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1353120
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1236998
Journal Information:
Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 6; ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 115 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (25)

Discovery of stationary operation of quiescent H-mode plasmas with net-zero neutral beam injection torque and high energy confinement on DIII-D journal March 2016
Pedestal radial flux measuring method to prevent impurity accumulation journal May 2017
Modal analysis of the full poloidal structure of the plasma response to n = 2 magnetic perturbations journal July 2018
A multi-species powder dropper for magnetic fusion applications journal October 2018
Quasi-coherent mode simulation during inter-ELM period in HL-2A journal December 2018
Critical Exploration of Liquid Metal Plasma-Facing Components in a Fusion Nuclear Science Facility journal June 2019
Conceptual design of divertor and first wall for DEMO-FNS journal November 2015
Equilibrium drives of the low and high field side n   =  2 plasma response and impact on global confinement journal April 2016
Dimensionless scalings of confinement, heat transport and pedestal stability in JET-ILW and comparison with JET-C journal October 2016
Stability analysis of ELMs in long-pulse discharges with ELITE code on EAST tokamak journal March 2018
Pace making of edge localized modes with low-hybrid-wave power pulses in the EAST superconducting tokamak journal May 2019
Investigation of edge impurity transport and divertor fluxes by toroidally localized lithium injection on EAST with EMC3-EIRENE journal October 2019
Study of lithium influx, radiation, transport and influence on plasma parameters in the T-10 tokamak journal December 2019
Numerical study of ubiquitous modes in tokamak plasmas in the presence of impurities journal January 2020
Overview of the JET results in support to ITER journal June 2017
Review of recent experiments on the T-10 tokamak with all metal wall journal July 2017
Effect of the relative shift between the electron density and temperature pedestal position on the pedestal stability in JET-ILW and comparison with JET-C journal March 2018
Access and sustainment of naturally ELM-free and small-ELM regimes journal September 2018
Effects of divertor geometry on H-mode pedestal structure in attached and detached plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak journal July 2018
Grassy-ELM regime with edge resonant magnetic perturbations in fully noninductive plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak journal July 2018
Results from an improved flowing liquid lithium limiter with increased flow uniformity in high power plasmas in EAST journal November 2018
The effect of plasma shape and neutral beam mix on the rotation threshold for RMP-ELM suppression journal March 2019
Role of the pedestal position on the pedestal performance in AUG, JET-ILW and TCV and implications for ITER journal June 2019
Active conditioning of ASDEX Upgrade tungsten plasma-facing components and discharge enhancement through boron and boron nitride particulate injection journal October 2019
Observation of Flat Electron Temperature Profiles in the Lithium Tokamak Experiment journal July 2017

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