Mitigation of type-I ELMs with n = 2 fields on JET with ITER-like wall

Abstract

Mitigation of type-I edge-localized modes (ELMs) was observed with the application of an n = 2 field in H-mode plasmas on the JET tokamak with the ITER-like wall (ILW). Several new findings with the ILW were identified and contrasted to the previous carbon wall (C-wall) results for comparable conditions. Previous results for high collisionality plasmas with the C-wall saw little or no influence of either n = 1 or n = 2 fields on the ELMs. However, recent observations with the ILW show large type-I ELMs with a frequency of ∼45 Hz were replaced by high-frequency (∼200 Hz) small ELMs during the application of the n = 2 field. With the ILW, splitting of the outer strike point was observed for the first time during the strong mitigation of the type-I ELMs. The maximal surface temperature (Tmax) on the outer divertor plate reached a stationary state and has only small variations of a few degrees due to the small mitigated ELMs. In moderate collisionality H-mode plasmas, similar to previous results with the C-wall, both an increase in the ELM frequency and density pump-out were observed during the application of the n = 2 field. There are two new observations compared with the C-wall results. Firstly, the effect of ELM mitigation with the n = 2 field was seen to saturate so that the ELM frequency did not further increase above a certain level of n = 2 magnetic perturbations. Secondly splitting of the outer strike point during the ELM crash was seen, resulting in mitigation of the maximal ELM peak heat fluxes on the divertor region.