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Fusion performance of reversed shear discharges with an L-mode edge has been significantly improved in a thermonuclear dominant regime with up to 2.8 MA of plasma current in the JT-60U tokamak. The core plasma energy is efficiently confined due to the existence of persistent internal transport barriers formed for both ions and electrons at a large minor radius of r͞a ϳ 0.7 near the boundary of the reversed shear region. In an assumed deuterium-tritium fuel, the peak fusion amplification factor defined for transient conditions involving the dW ͞dt term would be in excess of unity. [S0031-9007(97)04592-4] PACS numbers: 52.55.Fa, 52.55.PiThe reversed shear discharges are considered attractive for a steady state operation with a large bootstrap current fraction in tokamak reactors as proposed for SSTR [1] and ITER [2], since it would be possible to match the hollow current profile to a bootstrap current profile in a steady state. While the central magnetic shear in tokamak plasmas is naturally reversed during a sufficiently long discharge duration with a large bootstrap current fraction [3], the forced shear reversal operation by enhancing a skin current effect has become important for establishing a controlled approach to the steady state [4].In nuclear fusion research, critical conditions in which fusion power produced in plasmas is equal to loss power from the plasmas have been pursued as a crucial milestone ultimately towards the commercial use of thermonuclear fusion energy. In order to determine whether the reversed shear scenario is workable, it is crucially important to demonstrate the fusion-relevant performance, particularly in the thermonuclear fusion regime with the shear reversal operation. So far, however, most of the previous experiments addressing high fusion reactivity in tokamaks have been limited to a hot-ion regime with substantial beam-thermal reactions for deuterium plasmas in TFTR supershot [5], JET hot-ion H mode [6] and JT-60U high-b p H mode [7], and deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas in TFTR supershot [8]. Although fusion performance has been recently enhanced with strong profile and shaping control in deuterium reversed shear plasmas with an H-mode edge in DIII-D [9], the projected D-T fusion power is substantially below the loss power from the plasma. In the present paper, it is shown that fusion performance has been significantly improved in JT-60U for reversed shear discharges with an L-mode edge in a thermonuclear fusion regime, so that the transient fusion amplification factor defined as below would be in excess of unity.In JT-60U, the experimental campaign of the reversed shear discharges aiming at high fusion amplification factor ͑Q͒ has been intensively performed with D beams into D plasmas. The confinement properties for the reversed shear discharges created in JT-60U are characterized by (i) the significant reduction of heat and particle transport for electrons as well as ions around the internal transport barrier (ITB), (ii) a large extension of the enhanced confinement region up...

A new technique of self-refilling friction stir welding (SRFSW) relying on non-consumable joining tool has been developed to repair the keyhole left at the end of 316L stainless steel friction stir welding/friction stir processing (FSW/FSP) seam. The conventional FSW process was transformed by adopting a series of non-consumable tools with gradual change in geometry to create a solid state refilled joint step by step. Using the combined plastic deformation and flow of the material around the keyhole, the SRFSW process is able to repair the keyhole with both metallurgical and mechanical bonding characteristics, and the FSW/FSP seam can be achieved without keyhole or other obvious macro defects. Microstructural observation results showed that the grains in the refilled zone were significantly refined by the tool. Tensile test results showed the refilled joint fractured at the base metal side, and the relative tensile strength and elongation are 112 and 82% of the base metal respectively. Moreover, no sigma phase but few Cr carbides were found in the refilled zone, which would not result in obvious corrosion resistance degradation of 316L stainless steel.