Observation of Blobs and Holes in the Boundary Plasma of EAST Tokamak

Intermittent convective transport at the edge and in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of EAST was investigated by using fast reciprocating Langmuir probe. Holes, as part of plasma structures, were detected for the first time inside the shear layer. The amplitude probability distribution function of the turbulence is strongly skewed, with positive skewed events (“blobs”) prevailing in the SOL region and negative skewed events (“holes”) dominant inside the shear layer. The statistical properties coincide with previous observations from JET [Nuclear Fusion 49 (2009) 092002.]. The generation mechanism of blobs and holes is also discussed. In addition burst structure and dynamics character of them are also presented.     

EAST全超导托卡马克等离子体击穿模拟

托卡马克装置的等离子体击穿有两个关键因素：合适的环电压和真空区域尽可能大的零场区。极向场线圈电流放电引起真空室感应涡流的产生,感应涡流对零场的优化、环电压的建立都有着不容忽视的影响。文章在对EAST真空室简化和划分的基础上,求解出真空室上感应涡流在等离子体击穿阶段的分布,对环电压的建立和零场区的变化情况进行了有效模拟。     

Estimating Time Dependence of Edge Plasma Turbulence in IR-T1 Tokamak

Time dependence of edge plasma turbulence was investigated in the IR-T1 tokamak. Time dependence of fluctuation level and spectra were measured using Langmuir probe in the region r/a = 0.8–1. In all times of typical shot, the edge plasma was turbulently unstable, with a broad band fluctuation spectrum in the range of frequencies f = 10–1000 kHz. The relative fluctuation level as monitored by the ion saturation current J⁺ was very high, in the range ?0.1–0.6 all over the time, while the fluctuation power spectra were roughly invariant in shape.     

Application of MDSplus on EAST Tokamak

EAST is a fully superconducting Tokamak in China used for controlled fusion research. MDSplus, a special software package for fusion research, has been used successfully as a central repository for analysed data and PCS （Plasma Control System） data since the debugging experiment in the spring of 2006 [1]. In this paper, the reasons for choosing MDSplus as the analysis database and the way to use it are presented in detail, along with the solution to the problem that part of the MDSplus library does not work in the multithread mode. The experiment showed that the data system based on MDSplus operated stably and it could provide a better performance especially for remote users.     

The Calibration of High-Speed Camera Imaging System for ELMs Observation on EAST Tokamak

A tangential fast visible camera has been set up in EAST tokamak for the study of edge MHD instabilities such as ELM.To determine the 3-D information from CCD images,Tsai's two-stage technique was utilized to calibrate the high-speed camera imaging system for ELM study.By applying tiles of the passive stabilizers in the tokamak device as the calibration pattern,transformation parameters for transforming from a 3-D world coordinate system to a 2-D image coordinate system were obtained,including the rotation matrix,the translation vector,the focal length and the lens distortion.The calibration errors were estimated and the results indicate the reliability of the method used for the camera imaging system.Through the calibration,some information about ELM filaments,such as positions and velocities were obtained from images of H-mode CCD videos.     

EAST等离子体电子密度测量与处理算法设计

介绍EAST托卡马克中HCN 激光干涉仪测量等离子电子密度基本原理,给出了等离子体电子密度HCN信号处理算法,该算法能准确地去零漂并有效的进行信号翻转处理,并利用小波分析的方法对信号进行去噪处理,获得了高精度低噪音的HCN信号.该算法同样可用于HT7托卡马克五道HCN信号处理中,利用好的HCN信号可以更加准确地反演等离子体密度空间分布,这种密度处理算法是行之有效的.     

EAST托卡马克的中性束注入方案

高能中性束注入(Neutral beam injection,NBI)是核聚变装置托卡马克采用的芯部辅助加热和非感应电流驱动主要手段之一.本文介绍了国家大科学工程全超导托卡马克实验装置(Experimental advanced super-conductingtokamak,EAST)上的高能NBI加热方案及注入器的工程要求,并讨论了中性束在EAST等离子体中的传输等相关问题.     

Design and application of GDC on EAST Tokamak

On EAST Tokamak, DC glow discharge (GDC) is developed to clean the first wall of plasma. It can effectively control the recycling of H, C, O impurities and improve the wall conditions. There are four GDCs which distribute equally on the EAST Tokamak vacuum vessel wall. Each GDC is equipped with an anode, a stainless steel cover and four support legs. The anode is insulated from cover with Al₂O₃ ceramics. After a round of experiment, the value of insulation resistance of GDC decreases remarkably due to metallization. To protect the insulation parts and heighten the reliability, ceramic protection covers are used on the GDCs. The other measures which can heighten insulation grades are also taken. After upgrade, the insulation resistance of each GDC between anode and ground is raised highly. When the pressure reaches 4 Pa, H₂-GDC and He-GDC is strarted. Boronation and siliconization are also applied to the device wall conditioning. After GDC cleaning, the impurities and partial pressure of remainder gases in vacuum vessel (VV) is decreased greatly and vacuum degree of VV can reach high easily.     

First Engineering Commissioning of EAST Tokamak

Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak （EAST） is the first fully superconducting tokamak. The first commissioning started on Feb. 1st of 2006 and finished on March 30TM of 2006 at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It consists of leakage testing at both room temperature and low temperature, pumping down, cooling down all coils, current leads, bus bar and the thermal shielding, exciting all the coils, measuring magnetic configuration and warming up the magnets. The electromagnetic, thermal hydraulic and mechanical performance of EAST Toroidal Field （TF） and Poloidal Field （PF） magnets have also been tested. All sub-systems, including pumping system, cryogenic system, PF＆ TF power supply systems, magnet instrumentation system, quench detection and protection system, water cooling system, data acquisition system, main control system, plasma control system （PCS）, interlock and safety system have been successfully tested.     

HCN Laser Interferometer on the EAST Superconducting Tokamak

A single-channel far-infrared （FIR） laser interferometer was developed to measure the line averaged electron density on the EAST tokamak. The structure of the single-channel FIR laser interferometer is described in detail. The evolution of density sawtooth oscillation was measured by means the FIR laser interferometer, and was identified by electron cyclotron emission （ECE） signals and soft X-ray intensity. The discharges with and without sawtooth were compared with each other in the Hugill diagram.     

Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging on the EAST Tokamak

An upgraded electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system consisting of new optics lenses with necessary electronics for receiving and processing signals for two dimension (2D) ECEI diagnostics was installed on EAST. Hyperboloid lens were adopted in the new system to optimize the spatial resolutions. The mixers array of sixteen elements measured the plasma electron cyclotron emission at eight frequencies simultaneously, and the profiles of the electron temperature and its fluctuation in an area of 20 cm (vertical) × 6 cm (horizontal) could then be analyzed. Eevolution of sawtooth precursor and crash in EAST was observed.     

Modelling of First Discharge in EAST Tokamak

An 1.5D equilibrium evolution code was used to model the time evolution of the first ohmic discharges in the EAST experiment. Good agreement between the simulation and the experimental results was obtained in the plasma current, major radius, electron temperature, loop voltage and poloidal field （PF） current for the entire duration of the discharge, which indicates that the code is highly reliable and will allow to further study the EAST discharge. At the same time, the code also simulates some important plasma parameters without experimental measured data yet, such as the plasma minor radius, central and edge safety factors, elongation and triangilarity, which are important in the analysis of EAST data.     

Spectroscopic Measurements of Impurity Spectra on the EAST Tokamak

Ultraviolet (UV) and visible impurity spectra (200～750 nm) are commonly used to study plasma and wall interactions in magnetic fusion plasmas. Two optical multi-channel analysis (OMA) systems have been installed for the UV-visible spectrum measurement on EAST. These two OMA systems are both equipped with the Czerny-Turner (C-T) type spectrometer. The upper vacuum vessel and inner divertor baffle can be viewed simultaneously through two optical lenses. The OMA1 system is mainly used for multi-impurity lines radiation measurement. A 280 nm wavelength range can be covered by a 300 mm focal length spectrometer equipped with a 300 grooves/mm grating. The Dα/Hα line shapes can be resolved by the OMA2 system. The focal length is 750 mm. The spectral resolution can be up to 0.01 nm using a 1800 grooves/mm grating. The impurity behaviour and hydrogen ratio evolution after boroniztion, lithium coating, and siliconization are compared. Lithium coating has shown beneficial effects on the reduction of edge recycling and low Z impurity (C,O) influx. The impurity expelling effect of the divertor configuration is also briefly discussed through multi-channels observation of OMA1 system.     

Sawtooth Control Experiments on HT-7 and EAST Tokamak

Sawtooth control experiments were performed on HT-7 with a limiter configuration and on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) with a double null con-figuration. The sawtooth period can be modified by lower hybrid wave (LHW) and ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF). Different sawtooth behavior was observed with the same plasma density, LHW power but different plasma currents on HT-7. There was a dwell time between LHW added and the sawtooth stabilization on HT-7 while the sawtooth stabilization immediately happened when LHW power was injected on EAST. The possible mechanism of the sawtooth control is discussed in this paper. All the experimental results have proved that power deposition of the radio frequency (RF) should be the key factor for sawtooth control.     

X-Mode Frequency Modulated Density Profile Reflectometer on EAST Tokamak

An extraordinary-mode(X-mode) frequency-modulated continuous-wave(FMCW) profile reflectometer has been built on EAST.In the reflectometer,continuous waves with frequency sweeping from 12.5 GHz to 18 GHz were generated through a Hyperabrupt Tuned-varactor Oscillator(HTO) source and a four times active multiplier was used to increase the frequency to V-band(50 GHz to 72 GHz).The polarization of horn lens antenna is perpendicular to the magnetic field line at the edge plasmas.According to the V-band frequency range and polarization,the system cover density range from 0.5 × 1019m 3to 3.0 × 1019m 3(when toroidal magnetic field is 1.8 T),with time resolution of 12.5 ~ 50 μs.The density profile could be calculated by assuming the edge profile through an empirical equation.The maximum spatial error deduced by the method is about 4 cm.This reflectometer has been successfully applied in 2010 autumn EAST campaign,the temporal evolution of density profiles was acquired during the low confinement mode to high confinement mode transition.The density pedestal of EAST Tokamak was observed and the top value and gradient of the density pedestal were estimated.