[en] Clear filamentary structures are observed at the edge of tokamak plasmas. These filaments are ejected out radially and carry plasma in the far scrape off layer (SOL) region, where they are responsible for producing most of the transport. A study has been performed of the characteristics of the filaments observed in L-mode plasma on MAST, using visible imaging. A comparison has then been made with the observed particle and power profiles obtained at the divertor as a function of the plasma current. The radial velocity and to a lesser extent the radial size of the filaments are found to decrease as the plasma current is increased at constant density and input power. The results obtained in this paper on the dependence of the average filament dynamics on plasma current are consistent with the idea that the filaments are responsible for determining the particle profiles at the divertor. (paper)

[en] In future nuclear fusion reactors high heat load events, such as edge-localised modes (ELMs), can potentially damage divertor materials and release impurities into the main plasma, limiting plasma performance. The most difficult to handle are type I ELMs since they carry the largest fraction of energy from the plasma and therefore deposit the largest heat flux at the target and on first wall materials. Knowing the temperature of the ions released from ELM events is important since it determines the potential sputtering they would cause from plasma facing materials. To make measurements of T _i by retarding field energy analyser (RFEA) during type I ELMs a new operational technique has been used to allow faster measurements to be made; this is called the fast swept technique (FST). The FST method allows measurements to be made within the time of the ELM event which has previously not been possible with T _i measurements. This new technique has been validated by comparing it with a slower average measurement previously used to make ion temperature measurements of ELMs. Presented here are the first T _i measurements during Type I ELMs made at a tokamak divertor. Temperatures as high as 20 eV are measured more than 15 cm from the peak heat flux of an ELM, in a region where no inter-ELM current is measured by the RFEA; showing that ELM events cause hot ions to reach the divertor target far into the scrape off layer. Fast camera imaging has been used to investigate the type of ELM filaments that have been measured by the divertor RFEA. It is postulated that most of the ion temperatures measured in type I ELMs are from secondary ELM filaments which have not been previously identified in MAST plasmas. (paper)

[en] The transport of particles via intermittent filamentary structures in the private flux region (PFR) of plasmas in the MAST tokamak has been investigated using a fast framing camera recording visible light emission from the volume of the lower divertor, as well as Langmuir probes and IR thermography monitoring particle and power fluxes to plasma-facing surfaces in the divertor. The visible camera data suggest that, in the divertor volume, fluctuations in light emission above the X-point are strongest in the scrape-off layer (SOL). Conversely, in the region below the X-point, it is found that these fluctuations are strongest in the PFR of the inner divertor leg. Detailed analysis of the appearance of these filaments in the camera data suggests that they are approximately circular, around 1–2 cm in diameter, but appear more elongated near the divertor target. The most probable toroidal quasi-mode number is between 2 and 3. These filaments eject plasma deeper into the private flux region, sometimes by the production of secondary filaments, moving at a speed of 0.5–1.0 km/s. Probe measurements at the inner divertor target suggest that the fluctuations in the particle flux to the inner target are strongest in the private flux region, and that the amplitude and distribution of these fluctuations are insensitive to the electron density of the core plasma, auxiliary heating and whether the plasma is single-null or double-null. It is found that the e-folding width of the time-average particle flux in the PFR decreases with increasing plasma current, but the fluctuations appear to be unaffected. At the outer divertor target, the fluctuations in particle and power fluxes are strongest in the SOL

[en] When resonant magnetic perturbations are applied in MAST, the plasma edge boundary experiences a three-dimensional (3D) distortion, which can be a few percent of the minor radius in amplitude, in good agreement with ideal 3D equilibrium modelling. This displacement occurs in plasmas both with radial position feedback control applied, and without feedback. When position feedback control is employed, an applied non-axisymmetric field can lead to an exacerbated edge displacement due to an ancillary axisymmetric position correction, with the direction of the correction dependent upon the phase of the applied field with respect to the toroidal position of the sensors used in the controller. This suggests that future machines reliant upon resonant magnetic perturbations for controlling ELMs should consider using a plasma control system capable of applying a position correction which accounts for the non-axisymmetry of applied magnetic perturbations. (paper)

[en] The ELM wetted area is a key factor in the peak power load during an ELM, as it sets the region over which the ELM energy is deposited. The deposited heat flux at the target is seen to have striations in the profiles that are generated by the arrival of filaments ejected from the confined plasma. The effect of the filaments arriving at the target on the ELM wetted area, and the relation to the midplane mode number is investigated in this paper using infrared (IR) thermography and high speed visible imaging (>10 kHz). Type I ELMs are analysed, as these have the largest heat fluxes and are observed to have toroidal mode numbers of between 5 and 15. The IR profiles during the ELMs show clear filamentary structures that evolve during the ELM cycle. An increasing number of striations at the target is seen to correspond to an increase in the wetted area. Analysis shows that the ratio of the ELM wetted area to the inter-ELM wetted area, a key parameter for ITER, for the type I ELMs is between 3 and 6 for lower single null plasmas and varies with the ELM midplane mode number, as determined by visible measurements. Monte-Carlo modelling of the ELMs is used to understand the variation seen in the wetted area and the effect of an increased mode number; the modelling replicates the trends seen in the experimental data and supports the observation of increased toroidal mode number generating larger target ELM wetted areas. ITER is thought to be peeling unstable which would imply a lower ELM mode number compared to MAST which is peeling–ballooning unstable. The results of this analysis suggest that the lower n peeling unstable ELMs expected for ITER will have smaller wetted areas than peeling–ballooning unstable ELMs. A smaller wetted area will increase the level of ELM control required, therefore a key prediction required for ITER is the expected ELM mode number. (paper)

[en] We present results of the design, implementation and testing of a Bayesian multi-diagnostic inference system which combines various divertor diagnostics to infer the 2D fields of electron temperature T _e, density n _e and deuterium neutral density n ₀ in the divertor. The system was tested using synthetic diagnostic measurements derived from SOLPS-ITER fluid code predictions of the MAST-U Super-X divertor which include appropriate added noise. Two SOLPS-ITER simulations in different states of detachment, taken from a scan of the nitrogen seeding rate, were used as test-cases. Taken across both test-cases, the median absolute fractional errors in the inferred electron temperature and density estimates were 10.3% and 10.1% respectively. Differences between the inferred fields and the test-cases were well explained by solution uncertainty estimates derived from posterior sampling. This work represents a step toward a larger goal of obtaining a quantitative, 2D description of the divertor plasma state directly from experimental data, which could be used to gain better understanding of divertor physics phenomena. (paper)

[en] The high pressure gradients in the edge of a tokamak plasma can lead to the formation of explosive plasma instabilities known as edge localised modes (ELMs). The control of ELMs is an important requirement for the next generation of fusion devices such as ITER. Experiments performed on the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) at Culham have shown that the application of non-axisymetric resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) can be used to mitigate ELMs. During the application of the RMPs, clear structures are observed in visible- light imaging of the X-point region. These lobes, or tangles, have been observed for the first time and their appearance is correlated with the mitigation of ELMs. Tangle formation is seen to be associated with the RMPs penetrating the plasma and may be important in explaining why the ELM frequency increases during ELM mitigation. Whilst the number and location of the tangles can be explained by vacuum magnetic field modelling, obtaining the correct radial extent of the tangles requires the plasma response to be taken into account

[en] The distortion of the plasma boundary when three-dimensional resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) are applied has been measured in MAST H-mode plasmas. When the n = 3 RMPs are applied to control edge-localized modes (ELMs), the plasma experiences a strong toroidal corrugation. The displacement of the plasma boundary is measured at various toroidal locations and found to be of the order of 5% of the minor radius for an applied field magnitude which mitigates ELMs. The empirically observed corrugation of the plasma edge position agrees well with three-dimensional ideal plasma equilibrium reconstruction. (paper)

[en] Disruptions are of significant concern to future devices, due to the large amount of energy released during the rapid quenching of the plasma. Disruption mitigation has been performed on MAST, to study the effect on heat loads and disruption time scales in a spherical tokamak. Massive gas injection is performed using a disruption mitigation valve capable of injecting between 0.6 and 1.5 × 10²² particles, corresponding to 10–150 times the plasma inventory. Noble gases are used for mitigation studies, specifically helium, argon, neon and a mixture of 10% argon and helium. The effect of mitigation is studied using a comparison between mitigated discharges and reference unmitigated disruptions. Mitigation has been seen to be effective at reducing peak divertor power loads, with reductions of up to 60% in the divertor power load being observed. The decrease in divertor power load is reflected by an increase in radiated power, mainly as a result of line radiation from the injected impurities. The largest reduction in the divertor power loads are seen for the impurities with Z > 4. The energy load to the divertor has been reduced by between 30–40% of the total stored plasma energy in ohmic, L mode and H mode discharges. Mitigation also affects the current quench times, accelerating the quench of the plasma with increasing injection quantity, with saturation observed at the highest injected quantities. (paper)

[en] Recent development of the nonlinear magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) code JOREK has enabled the alignment of its two-dimensional finite-element grid along poloidal flux surfaces for double-null Grad–Shafranov equilibria. In previous works with the JOREK code, only single X-point plasmas were studied. The fast-camera diagnostic on MAST, which gives a global view of the pedestal filamentation during an ELM crash, clearly shows filaments travelling far into the scrape-off layer, as far as the first wall. Simulation of such a filament dynamics in MAST double-null plasmas is presented here and compared with experimental observations. In addition to direct comparison with the fast-camera images, general aspects of filaments are studied, such as their radial speed and composition. A qualitative validation of simulations is carried out against other diagnostics, such as the Thomson-scattering profiles or the infra-red camera images. Simulations are found to reproduce experimental edge localized modes in a reasonable manner, with similar energy losses and divertor heat-flux profiles. However, the MHD model used for those simulations is a reduced MHD model, which is likely approaching the limit of its applicability for the MAST device. Also, the absence of diamagnetic drift terms in the present MHD model results in nonlinear simulations being dominated by the highest mode number, and thus coupling with lower mode numbers is not observed. (paper)