In the full tungsten environment of WEST, during its first phase of operation, around 25% of the pulses exhibited a rapid central electron temperature collapse. In its first phase, WEST plasmas were mostly heated by lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) and ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). In this publication, the collapsing pulses are analysed to understand the key actuators at play. Experimentally, an initial slow reduction of central electron temperature due to a density increase is observed, while the central tungsten profile is flat and constant in time. Then, radiative collapse occurs: the core tungsten profile peaks rapidly, at the same time, the central hard X-ray channel measurement decreases indicating a change in core LHCD absorption. Integrated modelling is used to explore the causality chain (RAPTOR coupled with QuaLiKiz 10D neural network for the heat transport, using LUKE to compute the LHCD power deposition profile). To capture the collapse speed, both, tungsten core peaking and reduction of central LHCD absorption are required. When central LHCD power absorption is reduced, core electron and ion temperature profiles flatten which reduces the tungsten neoclassical thermal screening and leads to the observed core tungsten accumulation.

High power experiments, up to 9.2 MW with LHCD and ICRH, have been carried out in the full tungsten tokamak WEST. Quasi non inductive discharges have been achieved allowing to extend the plasma duration to 53s with stationary conditions in particular with respect to tungsten contamination. Transitions in H mode are obtained lasting up to 4s with weak energy increment at the power crossing the separatrix is close to the threshold. Hot L mode plasmas (Te(0)>3keV) with a confinement time following the ITER L96 scaling are routinely obtained. The weak aspect ratio dependence of this scaling law is confirmed. Tungsten accumulation is generally not an operational issue on WEST. Difficulty of burning through tungsten can prevent from accessing to a hot core plasma in the ramp-up phase or can lead to rapid collapse of the central temperature when radiation is enhanced by a slight decrease of the temperature. Apart few pulses post-boronization, the plasma radiation is rather high (Prad/Ptot~50%) and is dominated by tungsten. This fraction does not vary as the RF power is ramped up and is quite similar in ICRH and/or LHCD heated plasmas. An estimate of the contribution of the RF antennas to the plasma contamination in tungsten is given

JT-60SA, the largest tokamak that will operate before ITER, has been designed and built jointly by Japan and Europe, and is due to start operation in 2020. Its main missions are to support ITER exploitation and to contribute to the demonstration fusion reactor machine and scenario design. Peculiar properties of JT-60SA are its capability to produce long-pulse, high-β, and highly shaped plasmas. The preparation of the JT-60SA Research Plan, plasma scenarios, and exploitation are producing physics results that are not only relevant to future JT-60SA experiments, but often constitute original contributions to plasma physics and fusion research. Results of this kind are presented in this paper, in particular in the areas of fast ion physics, highbeta plasma properties and control, and non-linear edge localised mode stability studies.

Plasma heating in the full Tungsten (W) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak (WEST) relies on electromagnetic waves in both Lower Hybrid (LH) and Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF). The present study focuses mostly on the optimization of discharges heated with ICRF, by reporting different methods to first optimize wave coupling, optimize their absorption and reduce the impurity production. It is shown that ICRF coupling can be optimized either by moving the plasma closer to antennas, increasing the plasma density, wave frequency and LH power. We show that the absorption efficiency correlates with the hydrogen concentration with the existence of an optimum between 7 and 10% as expected for a minority heating scenario.Absolutely calibrated visible spectroscopy sightlines were used to monitor ion fluxes in different locations as part of an effort to quantitively estimate the contribution of different impurity sources to the core contamination by tungsten. It is typically found that in discharges with high total RF-power (above 5MW of LH and 3MW of ICRF), divertor and antenna limiter sources can reach similar order of magnitude during the ICRF phase.

A large superconducting machine, JT-60SA has been constructed to provide major contributions to the ITER program and DEMO design. For the success of the ITER project and fusion reactor, understanding and development of plasma controllability in ITER and DEMO relevant higher beta regimes are essential. JT-60SA has focused the program on the plasma controllability for scenario development and risk mitigation in ITER as well as on investigating DEMO relevant regimes. This paper summarizes the high research priorities and strategy for the JT-60SA project. Recent works on simulation studies to prepare the plasma physics and control experiments are presented, such as plasma breakdown and equilibrium controls, hybrid and steady-state scenario development, and risk mitigation techniques. Contributions of JT-60SA to ITER and DEMO have been clarified through those studies.