On impurity handling in high performance stellarator/heliotron plasmas

Abstract

The Large Helical Device (LHD) and Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X, under construction) are experiments specially designed to demonstrate long-pulse (quasi steady state) operation, which is an intrinsic property of stellarators and heliotrons. Significant progress has been made in establishing high performance plasmas. A crucial point is the increasing impurity confinement at high density observed at several machines (TJ-II, W7-AS, LHD) which can lead to impurity accumulation and early pulse termination by radiation collapse. In addition, theoretical predictions for non-axisymmetric configurations predict the absence of impurity screening by ion temperature gradients in standard ion-root plasmas. Nevertheless, scenarios were found where impurity accumulation was successfully avoided in LHD and W7-AS due to the onset of friction forces in the (high density and low temperature) scrape-off-layer (SOL), the generation of magnetic islands at the plasma boundary and to a certain degree also by edge localized modes, flushing out impurities and reducing the net impurity influx into the core. In both the W7-AS high density H-mode regime and in the case of application of sufficient electron cyclotron radiation heating power a reduction in impurity core confinement was observed. The exploration of such purification mechanisms is a demanding task for successful steady-state operation. Impurity transport at the plasma edge/SOL was identified to play a major role for the global impurity behaviour in addition to the core confinement.