Abstract. Edge impurity transport has been investigated in the stochastic layer of Large Helical Device (LHD) and the scrape-off layer (SOL) of Huan Liuqi-2A (HL-2A) tokamak, as a comparative analysis based on the three-dimensional (3D) edge transport code EMC3-EIRENE and on the carbon emission profile measurement. The 3D simulation predicts impurity screening effect in the both devices, but also predicts different impurity behavior against collisionality and impurity source location between the two devices. The difference is caused by geometrical structures of the magnetic field lines in the stochastic layer and X-point poloidal divertor SOL, i.e., number of poloidal turns of flux tubes affecting poloidal distribution of plasma parameters and impact of perpendicular transport on parallel pressure conservation and energy transport. These processes have an influence on the impurity screening efficiency at upstream and downstream positions of field lines. The carbon emission measured in the stochastic layer of LHD clearly indicates the screening effect in high density region. The result can be qualitatively interpreted by the present modeling, although the modeling shows a slight difference in the quantitative behavior of carbon ions in the stochastic layer of LHD. On the other hand, comparison of the carbon emission profile from HL-2A with the modeling is not straightforward. It is found that the impurity distribution in the HL-2A SOL is very sensitive to the impurity source location. In order to interpret the experimental observation a further study is necessary, in particular, on the impurity source distribution in the divertor plate and the first wall.

Recent Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) experiments have successfully demonstrated a long-pulse steady-state scenario with improved plasma performance through integrated operation since the last IAEA FEC in 2016. A discharge with a duration over 100 s using pure radio frequency (RF) power heating and current drive has been obtained with the required characteristics for future long-pulse tokamak reactors such as good energy confinement quality (H98y2 ~ 1.1) with electron internal transport barrier inside ρ  <  0.4, small ELMs (frequency ~100–200 Hz), and good control of impurity and heat exhaust with the tungsten divertor. The optimization of X-point, plasma shape, the outer gap and local gas puffing near the low hybrid wave (LHW) antenna were integrated with global parameters of BT and line-averaged electron density for higher current drive efficiency of LHW and on-axis deposition of electron cyclotron heating in the long-pulse operation. More recently, a high βP RF-only discharge (βP ~ 1.9 and βN ~ 1.5, /nGW ~ 0.80, f bs ~ 45% at q95 ~ 6.8) was successfully maintained over 24 s with improved hardware capabilities, demonstrating performance levels needed for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor steady-state operation. A higher energy confinement is observed at higher βP and with favorable toroidal field direction. Towards the next goal (⩾400 s long-pulse H-mode operations with ~50% bootstrap current fraction) on EAST, an integrated control of the current density profile, pressure profile and radiated divertor will be addressed in the near future.

In this paper, we present clear experimental evidence of core region nonlinear coupling between (intermediate, small)-scale microturbulence and an magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) mode during the current ramp-down phase in a set of L-mode plasma discharges in the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST, Wan et al (2006 Plasma Sci. Technol. 8 253)). Density fluctuations of broadband microturbulence () and the MHD mode (toroidal mode number , poloidal mode number ) are measured simultaneously, using a four-channel tangential laser collective scattering diagnostic in core plasmas. The nonlinear coupling between the broadband microturbulence and the MHD mode is directly demonstrated by showing a statistically significant bicoherence and modulation of turbulent density fluctuation amplitude by the MHD mode.