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Usually when sufficient heating power is injected, tokamak plasma will make an abrupt transition into a state with improved confinement, known as the high-confinement mode, or H-mode. Given the greatly enhanced fusion yield, H-mode is foreseen as the baseline scenario for the future plasma operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Many research efforts have been given to understand the criteria for H-mode access. To further contribute to this research, a primary focus of this thesis is characterizing the H-mode access conditions in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, across a broad range of plasma density, magnetic field, and plasma current. In addition, dedicated experiments were designed and executed on C-Mod, to explore the effects of divertor geometry, ICRF resonance location, and main ion species on H-mode access conditions. Results from these experiments will be included in this thesis. The underlying physics of H-mode access is very complex, and the critical mechanisms remain largely unresolved. To promote our understanding, some models proposed for the H-mode transition are tested, using well documented local plasma conditions, obtained in C-Mod experiments. In particular, this thesis pioneers the test of a recently developed model for H-mode threshold power predictions.
Comparisons of H-mode regimes were carried out on the Alcator C-Mod and JFT-2M tokamaks. Shapes were matched apart from aspect ratio, which is lower on C-Mod. The High Recycling Steady (HRS) H-mode on JFT-2M and Enhanced D-alpha (EDA) regime on C-Mod, which both feature very small or no ELMs, are found to have similar access conditions in q95-nu* space, occurring for pedestal collisionality nu* greater than 1. Differences in edge fluctuations were found, with lower frequencies but higher mode numbers on C-Mod. In both tokamaks an attractive regime with small ELMs on top of an enhanced D-alpha baseline was obtained at moderate nu* and higher pressure. The JFT-2M shape favoured the appearance of ELMs on C-Mod, and also resulted in the appearance of a lower frequency component of the quasicoherent mode during EDA.
Edge transport barriers (ETBs) in tokamak plasmas accompany transitions from low confinement (L-mode) to high confinement (H-mode) and exhibit large density and temperature gradients in a narrow pedestal region near the last closed flux surface (LCFS). Because tokamak energy confinement depends strongly on the boundary condition imposed by the edge plasma pressure, one desires a predictive capability for the pedestal on a future tokamak. On Alcator C-Mod, significant contributions to ETB studies were made possible with edge Thomson scattering (ETS), which measures profiles of electron temperature (20 [leq] Te[eV] [leq] 800) and density (0.3 [leq] ne[10^20m^-3] [leq] 5) with 1.3-mm spatial resolution near the LCFS. Profiles of Te, ne, and pe = neTe are fitted with a parameterized function, revealing typical pedestal widths [delta] of 2-6mm, with [delta]Te [geq] [delta]ne , on average. Pedestals are examined to determine existence criteria for the enhanced D[alpha] (EDA) H-mode. A feature that distinguishes this regime is a quasi-coherent mode (QCM) near the LCFS. The presence or absence of the QCM is related to edge conditions, in particular density, temperature and safety factor q. Results are consistent with higher values of both q and collisionality [nu]* giving the EDA regime. Further evidence suggests that increased abs([nabla]pe) may favor the QCM; thus EDA may have relevance to low-[nu]* reactor regimes, should sufficient edge pressure gradient exist.
Fusion offers the prospect of virtually unlimited energy. The United States and many nations around the world have made enormous progress toward achieving fusion energy. With ITER scheduled to go online within a decade and demonstrate controlled fusion ten years later, now is the right time for the United States to develop plans to benefit from its investment in burning plasma research and take steps to develop fusion electricity for the nation's future energy needs. At the request of the Department of Energy, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a committee to develop a strategic plan for U.S. fusion research. The final report's two main recommendations are: (1) The United States should remain an ITER partner as the most cost-effective way to gain experience with a burning plasma at the scale of a power plant. (2) The United States should start a national program of accompanying research and technology leading to the construction of a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion at the lowest possible capital cost.
Alcator C-Mod is a high magnetic field tokamak with strong shaping capabilities. While compact in physical dimensions, C-Mod produces plasmas which overlap, in dimensionless parameters and absolute performance, with those produced in much larger devices. Auxiliary heating and current drive systems for C-Mod exclusively employ radio-frequency tools (Ion-Cyclotron and Lower Hybrid), naturally decoupling the heating, fueling and momentum sources. Routine operation at high absolute density, enabled by large B/R, allows C-Mod to explore regimes with fully equilibrated electrons and ions. Compactness also yields very high power densities and particle fluxes, expanding the available parameter space for scrape-off-layer and divertor physics and technology studies. C-Mod has always and exclusively used high Z metallic plasma facing components for all high heat flux regions. C-Mod produces the highest absolute pressure plasmas (at the ITER magnetic field and [beta]), with the current tokamak record for volume average plasma pressure (1.8x10^5 Pa).