Fuel recycling feedback control via real-time boron powder injection in EAST with full metal wall

A feedback control of fuel recycling via real-time boron powder injection,addressing the issue of continuously increasing recycling in long-pulse plasma discharges,has been successfully developed and implemented on EAST tokamak.The feedback control system includes four main parts:the impurity powder dropper(IPD),a diagnostic system measuring fuel recycling level represented by D_(α)emission,a plasma control system(PCS)implementing the Proportional Integral Derivative(PID)algorithm,and a signal converter connecting the IPD and PCS.Based on this control system,both active control and feedback control experiments have recently been performed on EAST with a full metal wall.The experimental results show that the fuel recycling can be gradually reduced to lower level as PCS control voltage increases.In the feedback control experiments,it is also observed that the D_(α)emission is reduced to the level below the target D_(α)value by adjusting boron injection flow rate,indicating successful implementation of the fuel recycling feedback control on EAST.This technique provides a new method for fuel recycling control of long pulse and high parameter plasma operations in future fusion devices.

Realization of T_(e0)>10 keV long pulse operation over 100 s on EAST

In 2021,EAST realized a steady-state long pulse with a duration over 100 s and a core electron temperature over 10 keV.This is an integrated operation that resolves several key issues,including active control of wall conditioning,long-lasting fully noninductive current and divertor heat/particle flux.The fully noninductive current is driven by pure radio frequency(RF)waves with a lower hybrid current drive power of 2.5 MW and electron cyclotron resonance heating of 1.4 MW.This is an excellent experimental platform on the timescale of hundreds of seconds for studying multiscale instabilities,electron-dominant transport and particle recycling(plasma-wall interactions)under weak collisionality.

Line identification of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra from low-Z impurity ions in EAST tokamak plasmas

Extreme ultraviolet(EUV) spectra emitted from low-Z impurity ions in the wavelength range of10–500Å were observed in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak(EAST)discharges. Several spectral lines from K-and L-shell partially ionized ions were successfully observed with sufficient spectral intensities and resolutions for helium, lithium, boron, carbon,oxygen, neon, silicon and argon using two fast-time-response EUV spectrometers of which the spectral intensities are absolutely calibrated based on the intensity comparison method between visible and EUV bremsstrahlung continua. The wavelength is carefully calibrated using wellknown spectra. The lithium, boron and silicon are individually introduced for the wall coating of the EAST vacuum vessel to suppress mainly the hydrogen and oxygen influxes from the vacuum wall, while the carbon and oxygen intrinsically exist in the plasma. The helium is frequently used as the working gas as well as the deuterium. The neon and argon are also often used for the radiation cooling of edge plasma to reduce the heat flux onto the divertor plate. The measured spectra were analyzed mainly based on the database of National Institute of Standards and Technology. As a result, spectral lines of He Ⅱ, Li Ⅱ–Ⅲ, B Ⅳ–Ⅴ, C Ⅲ–Ⅵ, O Ⅲ–Ⅷ, Ne Ⅱ–Ⅹ,Si Ⅴ–Ⅻ, and Ar Ⅹ–XVI are identified in EAST plasmas of which the central electron temperature and chord-averaged electron density range in Te0=0.6–2.8 keV and ne=(0.5–6.0)×1019 m-3, respectively. The wavelengths and transitions of EUV lines identified here are summarized and listed in a table for each impurity species as the database for EUV spectroscopy using fusion plasmas.

Evidence of vapor shielding effect on heat flux loaded on flowing liquid lithium limiter in EAST

A lithium(Li)vapour layer was formed around a flowing liquid Li limiter to shield against the plasma incident power and reduce limiter heat flux in the EAST tokamak.The results revealed that after a plasma operation of a few seconds,the layer became clear,which indicated a strong Li emission with a decrease in the limiter surface temperature.This emission resulted in a dense vapour around the limiter,and Li ions moved along the magnetic fleld to form a green shielding layer on the limiter.The plasma heat flux loaded on the limiter,measured by the probe installed on the limiter,was approximately 52%lower than that detected by a fast-reciprocating probe at the same radial position without the limiter in EAST.Additionally,approximately 42%of the parallel heat flux was dissipated directly with the enhanced Li radiation in the discharge with the liquid metal infused trenches(LIMIT)limiter.This observation revealed that the Li vapour layer exhibited an excellent shielding effect to liquid Li on plasma heat flux,which is a possible beneflt of liquid-plasma-facing components in future fusion devices.

Prediction of multifaceted asymmetric radiation from the edge movement in density-limit disruptive plasmas on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak using random forest

Multifaceted asymmetric radiation from the edge(MARFE) movement which can cause density limit disruption is often encountered during high density operation on many tokamaks. Therefore, identifying and predicting MARFE movement is meaningful to mitigate or avoid density limit disruption for the steady-state high-density plasma operation. A machine learning method named random forest(RF) has been used to predict the MARFE movement based on the density ramp-up experiment in the 2022’s first campaign of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak(EAST). The RF model shows that besides Greenwald fraction which is the ratio of plasma density and Greenwald density limit, dβp/dt,H98and d Wmhd/dt are relatively important parameters for MARFE-movement prediction. Applying the RF model on test discharges, the test results show that the successful alarm rate for MARFE movement causing density limit disruption reaches ~ 85% with a minimum alarm time of ~ 40 ms and mean alarm time of ~ 700 ms. At the same time, the false alarm rate for non-disruptive and non-density-limit disruptive discharges can be kept below 5%. These results provide a reference to the prediction of MARFE movement in high density plasmas, which can help the avoidance or mitigation of density limit disruption in future fusion reactors.