Magnetic turbulence is observed at the beginning of the current quench in intended TEXTOR disruptions. Runaway electron (RE) suppression has been experimentally found at magnetic turbulence larger than a certain threshold. Below this threshold, the generated RE current is inversely proportional to the level of magnetic turbulence. The magnetic turbulence originates from the background plasma and the amplitude depends strongly on the toroidal magnetic field and plasma electron density. These results explain the previously found toroidal field threshold for RE generation and have to be considered in predictions for RE generation in ITER.

A compact imaging x-ray spectrometer has been designed for tokamaks and stellarators to measure the plasma parameters at different spatial chords. It has been optimized for high spectral resolution and high sensitivity. High spectral resolution is obtained by using solid state detectors and minimizing the imaging errors of the spherical crystals. It is shown, that using spherical crystals the solid angle and hence the throughput can be increased significantly, without compromising the spectral resolution. The design is useful for the measurement of the spectra of He-and H-like ions from Si to Kr. The spectral resolution is sufficient for the measurement of plasma parameters. The temporal resolution is high enough for transport studies by gas puff and laser ablation experiments. The design is based on a modified Johann spectrometer mount, utilizing a spherically bent crystal instead of the cylindrically bent crystal in the traditional Johann mount. The astigmatism of the wavelength selective reflection on the spherical crystal is applied to obtain imaging of an extended plasma source on a two-dimensional detector. For each element, a separate crystal is required, only in few cases, a crystal can be used for the spectra of two elements. For the spectra of most of the He-like ions from Si up to Kr, suitable crystal cuts have been found on quartz, silicon and germanium crystals with Bragg angles in a small interval around the design value of 53.5°. All of the crystals have the same radius. They are fixed on a rotational table. The distance to the detector is adjusted by an x -y table to fit to the Rowland circle.

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This work discusses a new directional probe designed for measurements of fast ion losses and the plasma rotation with a high angular resolution in magnetically confined plasmas. Directional and especially Mach probes are commonly used diagnostics for plasma flow measurements, and their applicability for the fast ion losses detection has been demonstrated. A limitation of static Mach probes is their low angular resolution. At the Tokamak Experiment for Technology Oriented Research, the angular resolution is strongly restricted by the finite number of available measurement channels. In a dynamic plasma, where instabilities can lead to local changes of the field line pitch-angle, plasma flow, or fast ion losses, a low angular resolution makes a precise data analysis difficult and reduces the quality of the measured data. The new probe design, the rotating directional probe, combines the features of early directional probes and Mach probes. It consists of two radially aligned arrays of nine Langmuir probe pins with each array facing opposite directions. During the measurement the probe head rotates along its axis to measure the ion saturation current from all directions. As a result, the rotating directional probe simultaneously provides an angular dependent plasma flow and fast ion losses measurement at different radial positions. Based on the angular dependent data, a precise determination of the current density is made. In addition, the simultaneous measurement of the ion saturation current at different radial positions allows for resolving radially varying field line pitch-angles and identifying the radial dynamic of processes like fast ion losses.

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