Physics of Plasmas 25, 056115 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5024320
A. Bocka, H. Doerk, R. Fischer, D. Rittich, J. Stober, A. Burckhart, E. Fable, B. Geiger, A. Mlynek, M. Reich, H. Zohm, and ASDEX Upgrade Team
Abstract
The appropriate tailoring of the q-profile is the key to accessing Advanced Tokamak (AT) scenarios, which are of great benefit to future all-metal fusion power plants. Such scenarios depend on low collisionality ν* which permits efficient external current drive and high amounts of intrinsic bootstrap current. At constant pressure, lowering of the electron density ne leads to a strong decrease in the collisionality with increasing electron temperature ν* ∼Te−3. Simultaneously, the conditions for low ne also benefit impurity accumulation. This paper reports on how radiative collapses due to central W accumulation were overcome by improved understanding of the changes to recycling and pumping, substantially expanded ECRH capacities for both heating and current drive, and a new solid W divertor capable of withstanding the power loads at low ne. Furthermore, it reports on various improvements to the reliability of the q-profile reconstruction. A candidate steady state scenario for ITER/DEMO (q95 = 5.3, βN = 2.7, fbs > 40%) is presented. The ion temperature profiles are steeper than predicted by TGLF, but nonlinear electromagnetic gyro-kinetic analyses with GENE including fast particle effects matched the experimental heat fluxes. A fully non-inductive scenario at higher q95 = 7.1 for current drive model validation is also discussed. The results show that non-inductive operation is principally compatible with full-metal machines.