Small perturbations and strong impurity exhaust capability associated with the small grassy ELMs render the grassy-ELM regime a suitable candidate for achieving steady-state H-mode operation with a radiative divertor, especially in a metal-wall device, such as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). As the degradation of pedestal performance with excessive divertor impurity seeding or accumulation tends to be accompanied with significantly increased radiation near the divertor X point, feedback control of the absolute extreme ultraviolet (AXUV) radiation near the X point has been employed to maintain the confinement property in EAST. However, the absolute value of the AXUV radiation at the outer target varies with plasma conditions as during the divertor detachment process. Thus, a new feedback-control scheme has been recently developed and applied to grassy-ELM H-mode plasmas in EAST to achieve stationary partial detachment while maintaining good global energy confinement with H 98,y2 >1. In this scheme, electron temperatures (T et) measured by divertor Langmuir probes are used to identify the onset of detachment, and then the plasma control system (PCS) switches to the feedback control of one channel of AXUV radiation near the X point, where a steep gradient in the radiation profile is present. The feedback is performed through pulse-width-modulated duty cycle of a piezo valve to seed impurities with mixed gas (50% Ne and 50% D2) from the outer target plate near the strike point in the upper tungsten monoblock divertor. T et near the strike point is maintained in the range of 5–8 eV, and peak surface temperature on the outer target plate (T IR,peak) is suppressed and maintained at ∼180 °C, based on infrared camera measurements. The plasma stored energy maintains nearly constant over the entire feedback-control period. It thus offers a highly promising plasma control scenario suitable for long-pulse high-performance H-mode operation in EAST, which is potentially applicable to future steady-state fusion reactors as an integrated solution for the control of both ELM-induced transient and steady-state divertor heat loads while maintaining good core confinement.

A new lower tungsten divertor has been developed and installed in the EAST superconducting tokamak to replace the previous graphite divertor with power handling capability increasing from <2 MW m−2 to ∼10 MW m−2, aiming at achieving long-pulse H-mode operations in a full metal wall environment with the steady-state divertor heat flux of ∼10 MW m−2. A new divertor concept, ‘corner slot’ (CS) divertor, has been employed. By using the ‘corner effect’, a strongly dissipative divertor with the local buildup of high neutral pressure near the corner can be achieved, so that stable detachment can be maintained across the entire outer target plate with a relatively lower impurity seeding rate, at a separatrix density compatible with advanced steady-state core scenarios. These are essential for achieving efficient current drive with low-hybrid waves, a low core impurity concentration and thus a low loop voltage for fully non-inductive long-pulse operations. Compared with the highly closed small-angle-slot divertor in DIII-D, the new divertor in EAST exhibits the following merits: (1) a much simpler geometry with integral cassette body structure, combining vertical and horizontal target plates, which are more suitable for actively water-cooled W/Cu plasma facing components, facilitating installation precision control for minimizing surface misalignment, achieving high engineering reliability and lowering the capital cost as well; (2) it has much greater flexibility in magnetic configurations, allowing for the position of the outer strike point on either vertical or horizontal target plates to accommodate a relatively wide triangularity range, δ l = 0.4–0.6, thus enabling to explore various advanced scenarios. A water-cooled copper in-vessel coil has been installed under the dome. Five supersonic molecular beam injection systems have been mounted in the divertor to achieve faster and more precise feedback control of the gas injection rate. Furthermore, this new divertor allows for double null divertor operation and slowly sweeping the outer strike point across the horizontal and vertical target plates to spread the heat flux for long-pulse operations. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the ‘corner effect’ and are in good agreement with simulations using SOLPS-ITER code including drifts. The EAST new divertor provides a test-bed for the closed divertor concept to achieve steady-state detachment operation at high power. Next step, a more closed divertor, ‘sharp-cornered slot’ divertor, building upon the current CS divertor concept, has been proposed as a candidate for the EAST upper divertor upgrade.