The aim of these investigations is the description of the power flux on roof-like limiters near the LCFS. Here, the specific subject is the toroidal pump limiter ALT-II of TEXTOR-94. Similar to other plasma facing objects, the surface of ALT-II is shaped to enhance the plasma wetted area; this is achieved by reducing the angle of incidence of the magnetic field to less than 1 • for the first 10 mm of the SOL. This small angle of incidence enhances all effects of toroidal non-uniformity as given, for example, by magnetic field ripple. Extensive modelling explains well the observed heating pattern on the limiter surface due to the ripple effect. In contrast to the expectations from density and temperature distributions in the SOL and at the edge of the confined region, an excessive power density is deposited on the first few millimetres near the tip of the limiter roof. Physical effects which could cause this phenomenon are discussed.

Abstract. Thermographic measurements using an IR scanner have been performed at the pump limiter ALT-II of TEXTOR-94 during RI mode discharges and during disruptions. The measurements on the RI mode discharges were done to complete the TEXTOR database which had shown a structured decay pattern of the deposited power. It was found that the underlying radial heat flux can be described by two exponential decay functions. This structure, which generates an unexpected heat component close to the tangent line, has been observed in all discharge conditions including the RI mode. During disruptions, the heat is released in short pulses with a typical duration of 0.01-0.1 ms. The radial decay length of these pulses has a similar shape to the heat flux during normal discharges: it consists again of a strong component close to the tangent line with a radial decay length of 2-5 mm and probably one with a decay length of the order of 1 cm. The heat is released at the time when the edge electron temperature of the plasma drops, when intense hydrogen and carbon fluxes occur near the walls, and when electrical currents in the limiter blades are excited. In a tentative interpretation, the temporal and spatial structure of the heat pulse is attributed to the presence and growth of a laminar zone at the plasma edge, which is connected with the ergodization of the plasma edge during a disruption.

To study the removal of helium ash in present day, medium sized tokamaks, experiments with deuterium plasmas and helium puffs are conducted. Because D2 and He have almost the same mass, a spectroscopic method had been developed at TEXTOR where the He partial pressure in the exhaust line was measured by exciting the neutral gas in a Penning gauge and observing the characteristic emission lines of helium and deuterium. This method was limited to low pressures and concentrations because broad spectral lines from the deuterium molecules superimpose the He lines. By using a spectrometer and an intensified charge coupled device camera instead of optical filters and photomultipliers, it is now possible to record the interesting part of the spectrum with a time resolution of 20 ms. By subtracting the molecular spectrum of deuterium, helium concentrations from 2% on can be detected over about three orders of magnitude in pressure down to 2×10−6 mbar. He and D2 pressures are measured simultaneously. By another method the 58 nm resonance line of helium is observed and the crosstalk of the deuterium gas could be eliminated. Pressure measurements as low as 5×10−8 mbar and 1% He concentration are possible. A detection system utilizing a vacuum ultraviolet monochromator in combination with a channeltron has been tested.

The radiative improved mode obtained on the limiter tokamak TEXTOR-94 combines the possibility of power exhaust by a radiating plasma boundary (with a fraction of the radiated power with respect to the total input power up to 90% with neon or argon cooling) with improved energy confinement (as good as in the ELM-free H-mode in divertor tokamaks) at high plasma densities (line-averaged central-electron density equal to or even above the Greenwald density limit ) in quasi-stationary discharges. An overview is given of the substantial changes in plasma-edge properties occurring at high radiated power levels . These changes are characterized by a reduction of the plasma-edge density and temperature, a reduction of particle transport out of the confined plasma volume and an increase of the penetration depth of deuterium and impurity atoms. As a consequence, the particle confinement time increases and the electron-density profiles steepen. The transition to improved confinement takes place as soon as the density peaking reaches a critical threshold. An internal transport barrier is observed in the bulk of RI-mode plasmas (at ) characterized by an increase of the pressure gradient and of the shear of the toroidal velocity compared to discharges without additional impurity seeding. The dilution at the plasma boundary is strongly increased by the seeded impurities whereas the central dilution is only weakly affected.

The Advanced Limiter Test (ALT) project is the focus of a fruitful and intense International Energy Agreement collaboration on TEXTOR. The pump limiter is a mechanical boundary that is laid out for taking the full heat load of TEXTOR, namely 8 MW (assuming 2 MW radiated power) for 10 s, and provides a pumping efficiency of at least 5% of the working gas. This layout is adopted from the requirements of a fusion reactor: It is mandatory to remove both the full power that is convected to the limiter or divertor and the helium ash that is generated in the fusion process. In order to obtain pumping for all gases, the ALT-II is equipped with turbomolecular pumps. A short description of ALT-II is given, and the power and particle fluxes to the limiter surface and into the exhaust scoops are discussed. Requirements of the helium removal rate for a reactor and relevant measurements are discussed, and particle removal and the power distribution to the limiters are treated. Related topics of the ALT-II program were hydrogen recycling and the measurement of turbulence-induced anomalous particle transport in the plasma edge.