Large Type-I Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) are completely eliminated with small n = 3 resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) in low average triangularity, " = 0.26, plasmas and in ITER Similar Shaped (ISS) plasmas, " = 0.53, with ITER relevant collisionalities v e " # 0.2. Significant differences in the RMP requirements and in the properties of the ELM suppressed plasmas are found when comparing the two triangularities. In ISS plasmas, the current required to suppress ELMs is approximately 25% higher than in low average triangularity plasmas. It is also found that the width of the resonant q 95 window required for ELM suppression is smaller in ISS plasmas than in low average triangularity plasmas. An analysis of the positions and widths of resonant magnetic islands across the pedestal region, in the absence of resonant field screening or a self-consistent plasma response, indicates that differences in the shape of the q profile may explain the need for higher RMP coil currents during ELM suppression in ISS plasmas. Changes in the pedestal profiles are compared for each plasma shape as well as with changes in the injected neutral beam power and the RMP amplitude. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of requirements for optimal ELM control coil designs and for establishing the physics basis needed in order to scale this approach to future burning plasma devices such as ITER.

Parametric scalings of the intrinsic (spontaneous, with no external momentum input) toroidal rotation observed on a large number of tokamaks have been combined with an eye towards revealing the underlying mechanism(s) and extrapolation to future devices. The intrinsic rotation velocity has been found to increase with plasma stored energy or pressure in JET, Alcator C-Mod, Tore Supra, DIII-D, JT-60U and TCV, and to decrease with increasing plasma current in some of these cases. Use of dimensionless parameters has led to a roughly unified scaling with MA ∝ βN, although a variety of Mach numbers works fairly well; scalings of the intrinsic rotation velocity with normalized gyro-radius or collisionality show no correlation. Whether this suggests the predominant role of MHD phenomena such as ballooning transport over turbulent processes in driving the rotation remains an open question. For an ITER discharge with βN = 2.6, an intrinsic rotation Alfven Mach number of MA ≃ 0.02 may be expected from the above deduced scaling, possibly high enough to stabilize resistive wall modes without external momentum input.

Recent DIII-D [J. L. Luxon et al., Nucl. Fusion 43, 1813 (2003)] experiments show a correlation between the extent of overlap of magnetic islands induced in the edge plasma by perturbation coils and complete suppression of Type-I edge localized modes (ELMs) in plasmas with ITER-like electron pedestal collisionality νe*∼0.1, flux surface shape and low edge safety factor (q95≈3.6). With fixed amplitude n=3 resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP), ELM suppression is obtained only in a finite window in the edge safety factor (q95) consistent with maximizing the resonant component of the applied helical field. ELM suppression is obtained over an increasing range of q95 by either increasing the n=3 RMP strength, or by adding n=1 perturbations to “fill in” gaps between islands across the edge plasma. The suppression of Type-I ELMs correlates with a minimum width of the edge region having magnetic islands with Chirikov parameter >1.0, based on vacuum calculations of RMP mode components excluding the plasma response or rotational shielding. The fraction of vacuum magnetic field lines that are lost from the plasma, with connection length to the divertor targets comparable to an electron-ion collisional mean free path, increases throughout the island overlap region in the ELM suppressed case compared with the ELMing case.

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In the absence of any auxiliary torque input, the DIII-D plasma consists of nonzero toroidal angular momentum, in other words, it rotates. This effect is commonly observed in tokamaks, being referred to as intrinsic rotation. Measurements of intrinsic rotation profiles have been made in DIII-D ͓J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 ͑2002͔͒ H-mode discharges, with both Ohmic heating ͑OH͒ and electron cyclotron heating ͑ECH͒ in which there is no auxiliary torque. Recently, the H-mode data set has been extended with the newly configured DIII-D simultaneous co-and counter-directed neutral beam injection ͑NBI͒ capability resulting in control of the local torque deposition, where co and counter refer to the direction relative to the toroidal plasma current. Understanding intrinsic rotation is important for projection toward burning plasma performance where any NBI torque will be relatively small. The toroidal velocity is recognizably important regarding issues of stability and confinement. In DIII-D ECH H-modes the rotation profile is hollow, co-directed at large minor radius and depressed, or actually counter-directed, nearer the magnetic axis. This profile varies with the ECH power deposition profile to some extent. In contrast, OH H-modes have a relatively flat co-directed rotation profile. There is a scaling of the DIII-D intrinsic toroidal velocity with W / I p , as seen in intrinsic rotation in Alcator C-Mod ͓J. Rice, Nucl. Fusion 39, 1175 ͑1999͔͒, where W is the total plasma thermal energy and I p is the magnitude of the toroidal plasma current. This common scaling resulted in a dimensionless similarity experiment between DIII-D and Alcator C-Mod on intrinsic rotation, obtaining a single spatial point match in the toroidal velocity normalized to the ion thermal velocity. The balanced NBI capability in DIII-D is a useful tool to push scaling studies to higher values of the plasma normalized energy, notwithstanding the details of torque deposition for co-NBI versus counter-NBI. There are theories which address intrinsic rotation, both extensions of neoclassical theory and related to turbulent transport. At this time, the comparisons with theory are qualitative.