Recent experiment results from the HL-2A tokamak are presented in this paper. Supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) with liquid nitrogen temperature propellant is used. Low temperature SMBI can form hydrogen clusters that penetrate into the plasma more deeply and efficiently. Particle diffusion coefficient and convection velocity (D = 0.5–1.5 m2 s−1 and Vconv < 40 m s−1, respectively) are obtained at the plasma periphery using modulated SMBI. Multi-probe measurements reveal the m = 0–1, n = 0 symmetries of directly measured low frequency (7–9 kHz) electric potential and field are simultaneously observed for the first time. Impurity transport is determined with the laser blow-off system and transport code. A disruption predictor has been derived based on MHD activity observations and statistical analysis. Sawtooth characteristics during ECRH are investigated and coupling between m = 1 and m/n = 2/1 modes is studied. Detachment features of HL-2A divertor are numerically and experimentally studied using the code SOLPS5.0 and measured data. The long divertor legs and thin divertor throats in HL-2A pose MHD shaping problems resulting in momentum losses even at low densities and strongly enhanced main chamber losses.

Runaway currents following disruptions have an important effect on the first wall in current tokamaks and will be more severe in next generation tokamaks. The behavior of runaway currents in massive gas injection (MGI) induced disruptions have been investigated in the J-TEXT tokamak. The cold front induced by the gas jet penetrates helically along field lines, preferentially toward the high field side and stops at a location near the q  =  2 surface before the disruption. When the cold front reaches the q  =  2 surface it initiates magnetohydrodynamic activities and results in disruption. It is found that the MGI of He or Ne results in runaway free shutdown in a large range of gas injections. Mixture injection of He and Ar (90% He and 10%Ar) consistently results in runaway free shutdown. A moderate amount of Ar injection could produce significant runaway current. The maximum runaway energy in the runaway plateau is estimated using a simplified model which neglects the drag forces and other energy loss mechanisms. The maximum runaway energy increases with decreasing runaway current. Imaging of the runaway beam using a soft x-ray array during the runaway current plateau indicates that the runaway beam is located in the center of the plasma. Resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) is applied to reduce the runaway current successfully during the disruption phase in a small scale tokamak, J-TEXT. When the runaway current builds up, the application of RMP cannot decouple the runaway beam due to the lower sensitivity of the energetic runaway electrons to the magnetic perturbation.

The generation of runaway electrons during disruptions poses a serious threat for the operation of ITER. The efficiency of the injection of large amounts of impurities by massive gas injection or shattered pellet injection to achieve runaway suppression might be compromised due to low gas mixture efficiency and the high Rosenbluth density for runaway suppression. The transport of runaway electrons is dominated by magnetic perturbations. The magnetic perturbations have the advantage of expelling the runaway seeds before they reach high energy. Robust runaway suppression has been reached on J-TEXT with mode locking by the application of m/n  =  2/1 resonant magnetic perturbations before the thermal quench. The mode locking implemented large magnetic islands inside the plasma which acted as an explosive bomb during disruptions and led to stronger stochasticity in the whole plasma cross section. The NIMROD simulation indicates that this strong stochasticity expels the runaway seeds and results in runaway free disruptions on J-TEXT. This might provide an alternative runaway suppression technique during disruptions for large-scale tokamaks.

In this paper, we describe the behavior of impurity transport in the HL-2A electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) L-mode plasma. The neon as a trace impurity is injected by the supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) technique, which is used for the first time to study the impurity transport in HL-2A. The progression of neon ions is monitored by the soft X-ray camera and bolometer arrays with good temporal and spatial resolutions. The convection and diffusion process of the neon ions are investigated with the one-dimensional impurity transport code STRAHL. The results show that the diffusion coefficient D of neon ions is a factor of four larger than the neoclassical value in the central region. The value of D is larger in the outer region of the plasma (ρ > 0.6) than in the central region of the plasma (ρ < 0.6). The convective velocity directs inwards with a value of ∼ −1.0 m/s in the Ohmic discharge, but it reverses to direct outwards with a value of ∼ 8.0 m/s in the outer region of the plasma when ECRH is applied. The result indicates that the impurity transport is strongly enhanced with ECRH.

HL-2A plasmas heated by neutral beam injection (NBI) regularly exhibit n = 1 long-lived saturated magnetohydrodynamic instabilities. A reduction in the electron density and plasma stored energy and an increase in fast ion losses are usually observed in the presence of such perturbations. The observed long-lived saturated internal mode (LLM) occurs when the safety factor profile has a weak shear in a broad range of the plasma centre with qmin around unity. It is found that the ideal interchange mode can become marginally stable due to the weak magnetic shear reaching a critical value. The LLM, due to its pressure-driven feature, is destabilized by the strong interaction with fast ions in the low-shear region during the NBI. Furthermore, for the first time it is clearly observed that the LLMs can be suppressed by electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH), or by supersonic molecular beam injection in HL-2A plasmas. Low-n sidebands observed during the LLM are also suppressed by increasing the ECRH power. The control of LLMs is due to the change in the magnetic shear or in the pressure profile induced by the local heating or fuelling.