Runaway Electron Beam Instability in Slide-Away Discharges in the HT-7 Tokamak

Slide-away discharges are achieved by decreasing the plasma density or ramping down the plasma current in runaway discharges in the HT-7 tokamak. In the case of plasma current ramp down, the ratio of the electron plasma frequency to the electron cyclotron frequency is higher than in the stationary pulses when the discharge goes into a slide-away regime. The instability regime is characterized by relaxations in the electron cyclotron emission due to relativistic anomalous Doppler effect which transfers energy from parallel to perpendicular motion. The triggering of relativistic anomalous Doppler effect at higher density by ramping down of plasma current may provide a alternative runaway energy control scenario.

Recent Experimental Progress in the HT-7 Tokamak

Recent experimental campaign in the HT-7 toka-mak was scheduled to be ran from November 2002 toMarch 31, 2003, during which various issues were in-vestigated on getting high electron temperature, longpulse discharges and high performance plasma underquasi-steady-state condition. New systems includ-ing LHCD launcher, cryogenic compressor, real-timepoloidal control, water-cooled toroidal belt limiter,ferretic liner and several diagnostics were installedand operated to satisfy long-pulse operation require-ments. The maximum total injected power was over1 MW and the longest discharge duration was nearto 64 s.

AC operation and runaway electron behaviour in HT-7 tokamak

Operation of HT-7 tokamak in a multicycle alternating square wave plasma current regime is reported. A set of AC operation experiments, including LHW heating to enhance plasma ionization during the current transition and current sustainment, is described. The behaviour of runaway electrons is analysed by four HXR detectors tangentially viewing the plasma in the equatorial plane, within energy ranges 0.3-1.2 MeV and 0.3-7 MeV, separately. High energy runaway electrons （~MeV） axe found to circulate predominantly in the opposite direction to the plasma current, while the number of low energy runaway electrons （~tens to hundreds of keV） circulating along the plasma current is comparable to that in the direction opposite to the plasma current. AC operation with lower hybrid current drive （LHCD） is observed to have an additional benefit of suppressing the runaway electrons if the drop of the loop voltage is large enough.

Analysis of D_α(H_α) spectrum emitted in front of the limiter in HT-7

In order to understand the recycling and emission processes of hydrogen atoms in HT 7, spectral profiles of the Dα（Hα） line emitted in front of the limiter have been observed with a high-resolution spectrometer and simulated by using the neutral particle transport code DEGAS 2. The results show that four processes are necessary to interpret the Dα（Hα） line shape： 1） atom desorption, 2） molecular dissociation, 3） particle reflection, and 4） charge-exchange. The products of the first two processes are cold atoms which emit photons near the peak of Dα（Hα） line shape, and those from the last two are warm atoms contributing to the blue side of the spectrum. For a typical ohmic discharge （shot 68520 ne（0） ≈ 3× 10^19 m^-3. these components contribute 32%, 15%, 32% and 21%, respectively. Dα（Hα） line shapes under different plasma parameters are also discussed in this paper.

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.

LHCD Properties with a New Lower Hybrid Wave Antenna on HT-7 Tokamak

The structure and the characteristic power spectrum of a new lower hybrid wave antenna on the HT-7 tokamak are briefly described in this paper. The main experimental properties with the new antenna have been demonstrated by showing the dependence of current drive efficiency and particle confinement time on phase difference between adjacent waveguides of the antenna. A few preliminary analyses about the experimental results are also discussed in the paper.

Behaviors of Electron Heat Transportation in HT-7 Sawtoothing Plasma

It is found that in HT-7 ohmic plasma, main energy loss comes from electron heat conduction, hence quantitative data of electron heat diffusivity is a very important issue for investigation of electron heat transportation behavior in different target plasmas so as to get high performance plasma. A time-to-peak method of the heat pulse propagation originating from the sawtooth activity on the soft x-ray intensity signal has been adopted to experimentally determine electron heat diffusivity XeHP on the HT-7 tokamak. Aiming to improve the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the original signal to get a stable and reasonable electron heat diffusivity XeHD value, some data processing methods, including average of tens of sawteeth, is discussed. The electron heat diffusivity XeHP is larger than XePB which is determined from the balance of background plasma power. Based on variation of the measured electron heat diffusivity XeHP, performances of different high confinement plasmas are analyzed.

Feedback Control System for Antenna Phase Difference in the LHCD Experiments

It is well accepted that lower hybrid current drive （LHCD） is the most efficient method for non-inductive current drive in fusion devices and the effect of the current drive is dependent on not only microwave power but also its grill phase shift. This paper presents a new kind of feedback control system for antenna phase difference in LHCD experiments. In this highspeed control system, a lot of new technologies and methods are incorporated. The results of the experiments show a very good agreement with the system design.