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Advanced electron cyclotron heating and current drive experiments on the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X

  • Torsten Stange
  • , Heinrich Peter Laqua
  • , Marc Beurskens
  • , Hans Stephan Bosch
  • , Sergey Bozhenkov
  • , Rudolf Brakel
  • , Harald Braune
  • , Kai Jakob Brunner
  • , Alvaro Cappa
  • , Andreas Dinklage
  • , Volker Erckmann
  • , Golo Fuchert
  • , Gerd Gantenbein
  • , Florian Gellert
  • , Olaf Grulke
  • , Dirk Hartmann
  • , Matthias Hirsch
  • , Udo Höfel
  • , Walter Kasparek
  • , Jens Knauer
  • Andreas Langenberg, Stefan Marsen, Nikolai Marushchenko, Dmitry Moseev, Novomir Pablant, Ekkehard Pasch, Kian Rahbarnia, Humberto Trimino Mora, Toru Tsujimura, Yuriy Turkin, Tom Wauters, Robert Wolf

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

During the first operational phase (OP 1.1) of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) was the exclusive heating method and provided plasma start-up, wall conditioning, heating and current drive. Six gyrotrons were commissioned for OP1.1 and used in parallel for plasma operation with a power of up to 4.3 MW. During standard X2-heating the spatially localized power deposition with high power density allowed controlling the radial profiles of the electron temperature and the rotational transform. Even though W7-X was not fully equipped with first wall tiles and operated with a graphite limiter instead of a divertor, electron densities of n e > 3·1019 m-3 could be achieved at electron temperatures of several keV and ion temperatures above 2 keV. These plasma parameters allowed the first demonstration of a multipath O2-heating scenario, which is envisaged for safe operation near the X-cutoff-density of 1.2·1020 m-3 after full commissioning of the ECRH system in the next operation phase OP1.2.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number02008
JournalEPJ Web of Conferences
Volume157
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 23 2017
Event22nd Topical Conference on Radio-Frequency Power in Plasmas 2017 - Aix en Provence, France
Duration: May 30 2017Jun 2 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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