First measurements of p11B fusion in a magnetically confined plasma.

Proton-boron (p11B) fusion is an attractive potential energy source but technically challenging to implement. Developing techniques to realize its potential requires first developing the experimental capability to produce p11B fusion in the magnetically-confined, thermonuclear plasma environment. Here we report clear experimental measurements supported by simulation of p11B fusion with high-energy neutral beams and boron powder injection in a high-temperature fusion plasma (the Large Helical Device) that have resulted in diagnostically significant levels of alpha particle emission. The injection of boron powder into the plasma edge results in boron accumulation in the core. Three 2 MW, 160 kV hydrogen neutral beam injectors create a large population of well-confined, high -energy protons to react with the boron plasma. The fusion products, MeV alpha particles, are measured with a custom designed particle detector which gives a fusion rate in very good relative agreement with calculations of the global rate. This is the first such realization of p11B fusion in a magnetically confined plasma.

Gas puff imaging system for edge plasma fluctuation measurements in large helical device.

A gas puff imaging system has been developed to measure edge fluctuations in large helical device. The optical system splits the image of the plasma into four wavelengths, Hα/Dα (656 nm), HeI (1s2p-1s3d; 587.6; 1s2p-1s3d, 667.8; and 1s2p-1s3s, 706.5 nm), enabling simultaneous measurement of the spatial distribution of line ratios of He I. The image of the plasma is amplified with an image intensifier and recorded with a fast-framing camera. The measurement area has a diameter of 20 cm just outside of the last closed flux surface. The spatial resolution of the optical system is about 3 mm, and the frame rate is 100 kHz for acquisition of the four wavelength images. Signal-to-noise ratio is evaluated for the system, and further improvement is discussed. Clear images are obtained for all wavelengths and a slightly different pattern is recognized, depending on the wavelength. A singular value decomposition analysis can decompose the image clearly to one perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field lines.

Experimental examination of a method to estimate temporal effect by neutrons and γ-rays on scintillation light in scintillator-based soft x-ray diagnostic of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak and large helical device.

Scintillators, which are more tolerant of neutrons or γ-rays than semiconductors, are a promising candidate for soft X-ray (SX) diagnostics in high neutron flux environments such as JT-60SA or ITER. Although scintillators are tolerant of radiations, neutrons and γ-rays can cause scintillation light and become noise on SX signals. Therefore, a method to estimate the temporal effect by the radiations on SX signals and an appropriate design of the radiation shield based on the estimation are required. In previous studies, it has been proposed for estimating the effect by the radiations to calculate the absorption powers due to SXs, neutrons, and γ-rays in scintillators assuming that amplitudes of scintillation light are proportional to the absorption powers. In this study, an experimental examination of this proposal is conducted in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). It is shown that the proposal may be valid in the examination of EAST. In addition to results in EAST, initial results of a multi-channel scintillator-based SX diagnostic in the Large Helical Device (LHD) are introduced. Although a scintillator-based SX diagnostic in LHD observes oscillations of SXs by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomena successfully, the observed temporal effect on SX signals by neutrons or γ-rays is more significant than the expected effect, which is estimated by calculating the absorption powers. One of the possible reasons for the contradiction between the results in EAST and LHD is unexpected γ-rays around the scintillators in LHD. Although the temporal effect by the radiations is significant in the current system of LHD, the degradation of amplitudes of SX signals after the deuterium plasma experiments is not observed with the current level of the fluence. The scintillator-based SX diagnostic in LHD may work as a diagnostic to research MHD instabilities in deuterium plasma experiments without additional maintenance during an experimental campaign by making the pinhole larger or setting an additional radiation shield.

Improved design for Heliotron J soft X-ray diagnostic for tomographic reconstruction studies.

Identifications of the plasma boundary shape and mode structure are important problems for the studies of the magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium and stability studies. Imaging diagnostics have the possibility to measure the plasma boundary shape and mode structure directly. The soft X-ray (SX) tomography is an imaging diagnostic for offering these direct measurements. However, SX tomography is by nature a limited angle tomography and provides a challenge as an ill-condition inverse problem. The reconstructed profiles depend heavily on the quality of measurements along with the employed inversion algorithm. This paper provides a detailed description of tomographic reconstruction of simulated SX measurements from the current SX diagnostic design of Heliotron J (H-J), which is a medium size heliotron device. Heliotron J has a unique magnetic geometry, and the quantitative identification of the plasma boundary and mode structure is a critical problem. The Phillip-Tikhonov regularization is employed to address the inversion problem. Finally, a new design for Heliotron J soft X-ray diagnostic is discussed which holds enhanced capabilities for tomographic reconstructions especially for the high poloidal number perturbations.

Suppression of Trapped Energetic Ions Driven Resistive Interchange Modes with Electron Cyclotron Heating in a Helical Plasma.

The resistive interchange mode destabilized by the resonant interaction with the trapped energetic ions is fully suppressed when the injected power of electron cyclotron heating exceeds a certain threshold. It is shown for the first time that the complete stabilization of the energetic-particle-driven mode without relaxing the energetic particle (EP) pressure gradient is possible by reducing the radial width of the eigenmodes δ_{w}, especially when δ_{w} narrows to a small enough value relative to the finite orbit width of EP.

Upgrade of the tangentially viewing vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) telescope system for 2D fluctuation measurement in the large helical device.

A high-speed tangentially viewing vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) telescope system, using an inverse Schwarzschild-type optic system was developed to study fluctuations in the Large Helical Device (LHD). However, for the original system, the sampling rate was restricted to below 2000 Hz due to the low signal to noise (S/N) ratio in the experiment. In order to improve the S/N ratio, upgrade of the system was made. With this upgraded optical system, the maximum framing rate is improved to 6000 fps with a similar spatial resolution. Rotation of the m = 2 structure caused by the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability is measured by the upgraded system. The spatial structure of the image is consistent with the synthetic image assuming the interchange mode type displacement of the flux surfaces.

Developments of scintillator-based soft x-ray diagnostic in LHD with CsI:Tl and P47 scintillators.

Multi-channel soft x-ray (SX) diagnostic has been used in the large helical device (LHD) to research magnetohydrodynamic equilibria and activities. However, in the coming deuterium plasma experiments of LHD, it will be difficult to use semiconductor systems near LHD. Therefore, a new type of SX diagnostic, a scintillator-based type diagnostic, has been investigated in order to avoid damage from the radiation. A fiber optic plate coated by P47 scintillator will be used to detect SX emission. Scintillation light will be transferred by pure silica core optical fibers and detected by photomultiplier tubes. A vertically elongated section of LHD will be covered by a 13 ch. array. Effects from the Deuterium Deuterium neutrons can be negligible when the scintillator is covered by a Pb plate 4 cm in thickness to avoid gamma-rays.

New type of wavelet-based spectral analysis by which modes with different toroidal mode number are separated.

A new type of wavelet-based analysis for the magnetic fluctuations by which toroidal mode number can be resolved is proposed. By using a wavelet, having a different phase toroidally, a spectrogram with a specific toroidal mode number can be obtained. When this analysis is applied to the measurement of the fluctuations observed in the large helical device, MHD activities having similar frequency in the laboratory frame can be separated from the difference of the toroidal mode number. It is useful for the non-stationary MHD activity. This method is usable when the toroidal magnetic probes are not symmetrically distributed.

Reconstruction of high temporal resolution Thomson scattering data during a modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating using conditional averaging.

This paper provides a software application of the sampling scope concept for fusion research. The time evolution of Thomson scattering data is reconstructed with a high temporal resolution during a modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating (MECH) phase. The amplitude profile and the delay time profile of the heat pulse propagation are obtained from the reconstructed signal for discharges having on-axis and off-axis MECH depositions. The results are found to be consistent with the MECH deposition.

Self-regulated oscillation of transport and topology of magnetic islands in toroidal plasmas.

The coupling between the transport and magnetic topology is an important issue because the structure of magnetic islands, embedded in a toroidal equilibrium field, depends on the nature of the transport at the edge of the islands. Measurements of modulated heat pulse propagation in the DIII-D tokamak have revealed the existence of self-regulated oscillations in the radial energy transport into magnetic islands that are indicative of bifurcations in the island structure and transport near the q = 2 surface. Large amplitude heat pulses are seen in one state followed by small amplitude pulses later in the discharge resulting in a repeating cycle of island states. These two states are interpreted as a bifurcation of magnetic island with high and low heat pulse accessibility. This report describes the discovery of a bifurcation in the coupled dynamics between the transport and topology of magnetic islands in tokamak plasmas.

Resistive interchange modes destabilized by helically trapped energetic ions in a helical plasma.

A new bursting m=1/n=1 instability (m,n: poloidal and toroidal mode numbers) with rapid frequency chirping down has been observed for the first time in a helical plasma with intense perpendicular neutral beam injection. This is destabilized in the plasma peripheral region by resonant interaction between helically trapped energetic ions and the resistive interchange mode. A large radial electric field is induced near the edge due to enhanced radial transport of the trapped energetic ions by the mode, and leads to clear change in toroidal plasma flow, suppression of microturbulence, and triggering an improvement of bulk plasma confinement.

Development of 2D soft X-ray measurement system in the large helical device.

A fast two-dimensional soft X-ray camera using silicon photo diode array is being developed in order to investigate high frequency MHD instability with high mode number. The advantage of the adopted diode is a large sensor area of 10 mm × 10 mm and small diode capacitance which enable us to measure signals with the short response time. The characteristic of the prototype is summarized as follows: Channel number is 6 × 8 = 48, detection range 1∼10 keV, the spatial resolution 128 mm at the plasma location, and frequency range DC∼100 kHz. Synthetic image of the prototype in the Large Helical Device is estimated by using perturbation model of MHD mode.

2D electron temperature diagnostic using soft x-ray imaging technique.

We have developed a two-dimensional (2D) electron temperature (T(e)) diagnostic system for thermal structure studies in a low-aspect-ratio reversed field pinch (RFP). The system consists of a soft x-ray (SXR) camera with two pin holes for two-kinds of absorber foils, combined with a high-speed camera. Two SXR images with almost the same viewing area are formed through different absorber foils on a single micro-channel plate (MCP). A 2D Te image can then be obtained by calculating the intensity ratio for each element of the images. We have succeeded in distinguishing T(e) image in quasi-single helicity (QSH) from that in multi-helicity (MH) RFP states, where the former is characterized by concentrated magnetic fluctuation spectrum and the latter, by broad spectrum of edge magnetic fluctuations.

High speed vacuum ultraviolet telescope system for edge fluctuation measurement in the large helical device.

A high speed tangentially viewing vacuum ultraviolet telescope system has been developed in the Large Helical Device (LHD), with the aim of investigating edge MHD activities. The spatial structure of low frequency (~0.75 kHz) MHD activity with poloidal∕toroidal mode numbers of m∕n = 1∕1 has been measured with this diagnostic.

Observation of reversed-shear Alfvén eigenmodes excited by energetic ions in a helical plasma.

Reversed-shear Alfvén eigenmodes were observed for the first time in a helical plasma having negative q0'' (the curvature of the safety factor q at the zero shear layer). The frequency is swept downward and upward sequentially via the time variation in the maximum of q. The eigenmodes calculated by ideal MHD theory are consistent with the experimental data. The frequency sweeping is mainly determined by the effects of energetic ions and the bulk pressure gradient. Coupling of reversed-shear Alfvén eigenmodes with energetic ion driven geodesic acoustic modes generates a multitude of frequency-sweeping modes.

The observation of nonlinear ion cyclotron wave excitation during high-harmonic fast wave heating in the large helical device.

A wave detector, a newly designed magnetic probe, is installed in the large helical device (LHD). This wave detector is a 100-turn loop coil with electrostatic shield. Comparing a one-loop coil to this detector, this detector has roughly constant power coupling in the lower frequency range of 40 MHz, and it can easily detect magnetic wave in the frequency of a few megahertz. During high-harmonic fast wave heating, lower frequency waves (<10 MHz) were observed in the LHD for the first time, and for the power density threshold of lower frequency wave excitation (7.5 MHz) the power density of excited pumped wave (38.47 MHz) was approximately -46 dBmHz. These lower frequencies are kept constant for electron density and high energy particle distribution, and these lower frequency waves seem to be ion cyclotron waves caused by nonlinear wave-particle interaction, for example, parametric decay instability.

Observation of helicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes in large-helical-device plasmas heated by neutral-beam injection.

The helicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (HAEs) with the toroidal mode number n=2 and 3 are observed for the first time in the Large Helical Device plasmas heated by neutral beam injection. The observed mode frequency is about 8 times higher than that of the observed toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes, and is proportional to the Alfvén velocity. The modes are excited when the ratio of the beam velocity to the Alfvén velocity exceeds about unity. The frequency lies just above the lower bound of the HAE gap in the plasma edge region of rho>0.7 (rho: normalized minor radius).

Sawtooth oscillation in current-carrying plasma in the large helical device.

Sawtooth oscillations have been observed in current-carrying helical plasmas by using electron-cyclotron-emission diagnostics in the Large Helical Device. The plasma current, which is driven by neutral beam injection, reduces the beta threshold of the sawtooth oscillation. When the central q value is increased due to the plasma current, the core region crashes, and, when it is decreased, the edge region crashes annularly. Observed rapid mixture of the plasma in the limited region suggests that these sawtooth crashes are reconnection phenomena. Unlike previous experiments, no precursor oscillation has been observed.

Island dynamics in the large-helical-device plasmas.

In the Large Helical Device plasma discharges, the size of an externally imposed island with mode number ( n/m = 1/1) decreases substantially when the plasma is collisionless ( nu(*)< approximately 1) and the beta is finite ( > approximately 0.1%) at the island location. For the collisional plasmas with finite beta, on the other hand, the size of the island increases. However, there is a threshold in terms of the vacuum island size below which the island enlargement is not seen.

Observation of the "self-healing" of an error field island in the large helical device.

It was observed that the vacuum magnetic island produced by an external error magnetic field in the large helical device shrank in the presence of plasma. This was evidenced by the disappearance of flat regions in the electron temperature profile obtained by Thomson scattering. This island behavior depended on the magnetic configuration in which the plasmas were produced.