Small non-axisymmetric magnetic fields are known to cause serious loss of stability in tokamaks leading to loss of confinement and abrupt termination of plasma current (disruptions). The best known examples are the locked mode and the resistive wall mode. Understanding of the underlying field anomalies (departures in the hardwarerelated fields from ideal toroidal and poloidal fields on a single axis) and the interaction of the plasma with them is crucial to tokamak development. Results of both locked mode experiments 1 and resistive wall mode experiments 2 done in DIII-D tokamak plasmas have been interpreted to indicate the presence of a significant anomalous field. New measurements of the magnetic field anomalies of the hardware systems have been made on DIII-D. The measured field anomalies due to the plasma shaping coils in DIII-D are smaller than previously reported 3 . Additional evaluations of systematic errors have been made. New measurements of the anomalous fields of the ohmic heating and toroidal coils have been added. Such detailed in situ measurements of the fields of a tokamak are unique. The anomalous fields from all of the coils are one third of the values indicated from the stability experiments 1,2 . These results indicate limitations in the understanding of the interaction of the plasma with the external field. They indicate that it may not be possible to deduce the anomalous fields in a tokamak from plasma experiments and that we may not have the basis needed to project the error field requirements of future tokamaks.

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A newly installed Lithium Granule Injector (LGI) was used to pace edge localized modes (ELM) in DIII-D. ELM pacing efficiency was studied injecting lithium granules of nominal diameter 0.3–0.9 mm, speed of 50–120 m s−1 and average injection rates up to 100 Hz for 0.9 mm granules and up to 700 Hz for 0.3 mm granules. The efficiency of ELM triggering was found to depend strongly on size of the injected granules, with triggering efficiency close to 100% obtained with 0.9 mm diameter granules, lower with smaller sizes, and weakly depending on granule velocity. Robust ELM pacing was demonstrated in ITER-like plasmas for the entire shot length, at ELM frequencies 3–5 times larger than the ‘natural’ ELM frequency observed in reference discharges. Within the range of ELM frequencies obtained, the peak ELM heat flux at the outer strike point was reduced with increasing pacing frequency. The peak heat flux reduction at the inner strike point appears to saturate at high pacing frequency. Lithium was found in the plasma core, with a concurrent reduction of metallic impurities and carbon. Overall, high frequency ELM pacing using the lithium granule injection appears to be compatible with both H-mode energy confinement and attractive H-mode pedestal characteristics, but further assessment is needed to determine whether the projected heat flux reduction required for ITER can be met.

Measurements of rotation using charge exchange recombination spectroscopy can be affected by the energy dependence of the charge exchange cross section. On DIII-D, the associated correction to the rotation can exceed 100 kms at high temperatures. In reactor-relevant low rotation conditions, the correction can be several times larger than the actual plasma rotation and therefore must be carefully validated. New chords have been added to the DIII-D CER diagnostic to view the counter-neutral-beam line. The addition of these views allows determination of the toroidal rotation without depending on detailed atomic physics calculations, while also allowing experimental characterization of the atomic physics. A database of rotation comparisons from the two views shows that the calculated cross-section correction can adequately describe the measurements, although there is a tendency for "overcorrection." In cases where accuracy better than about 15% is desired, relying on calculation of the cross-section correction may be insufficient.