It has been observed in the T-10 tokamak that immediately after off-axis electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) switch-off, the core electron temperature stays constant for some time, which can be as long as several tens of milliseconds, i.e. several energy confinement times (τ E), before it starts to decrease. Whether or not the effect is observed depends critically on the local magnetic shear in the vicinity of the q = 1 rational surface, which should be close to zero. It is hypothesized that a small shear can induce the formation of an internal transport barrier. Measurements of density fluctuations in the transport barrier with a correlation reflectometer show immediately after the ECRH switch-off a clear reduction in the fluctuation level, corroborating the above results. The delayed temperature decrease has also been observed in similar discharges in the TEXTOR tokamak; however, the delay is restricted to ∼1×τ E .

First experimental results of tungsten transport investigation in OH and ECRH plasmas in the T-10 tokamak with W-limiter and movable Li-limiter are presented. It is shown that tungsten tends to accumulate (a joint process of cumulation and peaking) near the plasma axis in ohmic regimes. The cumulation of W is enhanced in discharges with high values of the parameter that coincides with accumulation conditions of light and medium impurities in T-10 plasmas. Experiments with Li-limiter show the immeasurable level of Li3+ (0.3–0.5% of ne) of T-10 CXRS diagnostics because of the low inflow of Li with respect to other light impurities. Nevertheless, the strong influence of lithium on inflow of light and tungsten impurities is observed. In discharges with lithized walls, vanishing of light impurities occurs and values of are obtained. It is also shown that the tungsten density in the plasma center decreases by 15 to 20 times while the W inflow reduces only by 2 to 4 times. In lithized discharges with high γ, the flattening of the tungsten density profile occurs and its central concentration decreases up to 10 times during the on-axis ECRH. This effect is observed together with the increase of the W inflow by 3 to 4 times at the ECRH stage.

The results of T-10 experiments on the 'density pump-out' effect research, i.e. the escape of particles from the zone of on-axis electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) to the plasma periphery are presented. The dependences of the pump-out on the central chord line-averaged plasma density n, total plasma current and the ECRH power were found. The influence of the gas influx intensity and the conditions of the chamber wall and limiter on the above-mentioned effect is also investigated. It is shown that this effect increases with the growth of the n up to a certain critical value n cr , after which the escape of particles from the zone of on-axis ECRH decreases. This critical density n cr increases with the increase of the total plasma current and the ECRH power.

High density experiments were carried out in T-10 with gas puffing and electron cyclotron resonance heating (with absorbed power value up to 1.4 MW) with oblique and perpendicular power launch. Densities exceeding the Greenwald limit (n Gw ) by up to a factor of 1.8 were achieved in a regime with a high value of the edge safety factor at the current flat-top, q(a) ∼ = 8.2. The decrease of q(a) to a value of 3 led to the reduction of the ratio ( ne ) lim /n Gw to 1. Confinement degradation with density increase was not significant up to the density limit. However, the typical T-10 linear increase of energy confinement time with density saturates at ne 0.6n Gw . This saturation is the result of the development of an additional transport in the electron heat channel. However, the saturated τ E values exceeded the ITER L-mode scaling predictions by up to a factor of 1.2 and were close to the value predicted by the ITER H-mode scaling. Effect of the strong gas puffing on the plasma confinement and experiments with neon seeding are also discussed in this paper.

T-10 experiments with electron internal transport barrier (ITB) formation in discharges with reverse shear q(r) profile are described. Reverse magnetic shear was formed in the central region characterized by r/a L 0.3. It is shown that electron thermal conductivity decreases essentially in comparison with the value typical for the L-mode. It is found that degradation of the ITB correlates with development of MHD activity in the internal part of the plasma column.