Several experiments, related to controlled thermonuclear fusion research and highly relevant for large size tokamaks, including ITER, have been carried out in ADITYA, an ohmically heated circular limiter tokamak. Repeatable plasma discharges of a maximum plasma current of ~160 kA and discharge duration beyond ~250 ms with a plasma current flattop duration of ~140 ms have been obtained for the first time in ADITYA. The reproducibility of the discharge reproducibility has been improved considerably with lithium wall conditioning, and improved plasma discharges are obtained by precisely controlling the position of the plasma. In these discharges, chord-averaged electron density ~3.0–4.0  ×  1019 m−3 using multiple hydrogen gas puffs, with a temperature of the order of ~500–700 eV, have been achieved. Novel experiments related to disruption control are carried out and disruptions, induced by hydrogen gas puffing, are successfully mitigated using the biased electrode and ion cyclotron resonance pulse techniques. Runaway electrons are successfully mitigated by applying a short local vertical field (LVF) pulse. A thorough disruption database has been generated by identifying the different categories of disruption. Detailed analysis of several hundred disrupted discharges showed that the current quench time is inversely proportional to the q edge. Apart from this, for volt–sec recovery during the plasma formation phase, low loop voltage start-up and current ramp-up experiments have been carried out using electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Successful recovery of volt–sec leads to the achievement of longer plasma discharge durations. In addition, the neon gas puff assisted radiative improved confinement mode has also been achieved in ADITYA. All of the above mentioned experiments will be discussed in this paper.

Disruptions, induced in Aditya tokamak by hydrogen gas puffing, are successfully mitigated through stabilization of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes by applying a bias voltage to an electrode placed inside the last-closed flux surface prior to the gas injection. Above a threshold voltage sheared E r × B φ rotation of the plasma generated by the edge biasing leads to substantial reduction in the growth of MHD modes (m/n = 3/1, 2/1), which causes avoidance of disruptions through prevention of mode overlapping and subsequent ergodization of magnetic field lines.

This paper summarizes the results of recent dedicated experiments on disruption control and runaway mitigation carried out in ADITYA, which are of the utmost importance for the successful operation of large size tokamaks, such as ITER. It is quite a well-known fact that disruptions in tokamaks must be avoided. Disruptions, induced by hydrogen gas puffing, are successfully avoided by two innovative techniques in ADITYA using a bias electrode placed inside the last closed flux surface and applying an ion cyclotron resonance pulse with a power of ∼50 to 70 kW. These experiments led to better understanding of the disruption avoidance mechanisms and also can be thought of as one of the options for disruption avoidance in ITER. In both cases, the physical mechanism seems to be the control of magnetohydrodynamic modes due to increased poloidal rotation of edge plasma generated by induced radial electric fields. Real time avoidance of disruption with identifying proper precursors in both the mechanisms is successfully attempted. Further, analysing thoroughly the huge database of different types of spontaneous and deliberately-triggered disruptions from ADITYA, a significant contribution has been made to the international disruption database (ITPA). Furthermore, the mitigation of the runaway electron generated mainly during disruptions remains a challenging topic in present tokamak research as these high-energy electrons can cause severe damage to in-vessel components and the vacuum vessel. A simple technique has been implemented in ADITYA to mitigate the runaway electrons before they can gain high energies using a localized vertical magnetic field perturbation applied at one toroidal location to extract runaway electrons.

An experimental set-up to investigate the effect of a biased electrode introduced in the edge region on ADITYA tokamak discharges is presented. A specially designed double-bellow mechanical assembly is fabricated for controlling the electrode location as well as its exposed length inside the plasma. The cylindrical molybdenum electrode is powered by a capacitor-bank based pulsed power supply (PPS) using a semiconductor controlled rectifier (SCR) as a switch with forced commutation. A Langmuir probe array for radial profile measurements of plasma potential and density is fabricated and installed. Standard results of improvement of global confinement have been obtained using a biased electrode. In addition to that, in this paper we show for the first time that the same biasing system can be used to avoid disruptions through stabilisation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes. Real time disruption control experiments have also been carried out by triggering the bias-voltage on the electrode automatically when the Mirnov probe signal exceeds a preset threshold value using a uniquely designed electronic comparator circuit. Most of the results related to the improved confinement and disruption mitigation are obtained in case of the electrode tip being kept at ~3 cm inside the last closed flux surface (LCFS) with an exposed length of ~20 mm in typical discharges of ADITYA tokamak.

Major disruptions in Aditya tokamak are initiated by the growth and subsequent locking of m/n = 2/1 and 3/1 tearing modes, which leads to the thermal quench of the plasma. Thick filaments are seen to evolve at the low field side (LFS) of the plasma column following the thermal quench, and during the current quench. The number of filaments and inter filament spacing are observed to be related with the plasma stored energy just prior to the disruption. Rapid enhancement of the outward particle flux is seen during the thermal quench phase and the plasma conductivity reduces considerably. Interchange modes, with low poloidal wavenumber, are inferred to grow due to the reduced plasma conductivity and enhanced effective diffusivity. This may be a plausible explanation for the visualization of the thick filaments at the LFS.