Highly radiative plasmas for local transport studies and power and particle handling in reactor regimes

To study the applicability of artificially enhanced impurity radiation for mitigation of the plasma-limiter interaction in reactor regimes, krypton and xenon gases were injected into TFTR super-shots and high internal inductance plasmas. At NBI powers P-B greater than or equal to 30 MW, carbon influxes ('blooms') were suppressed, leading to improved energy confinement and neutron production in both D and DT plasmas, and the highest DT fusion energy production (7.6 MJ) in a TFTR pulse. Comparisons of the measured radiated power profiles with predictions of the MIST impurity transport code have guided studies of highly radiative plasmas in ITER. The response of the electron and ion temperatures to greatly increased radiative losses from the electrons was used to study thermal transport mechanisms. A change in the radial electric field E-r is associated with the improved confinement observed.