Hydrogen removal by electron cyclotron wall conditioning with neon gas and its impact of tokamak plasma start-up on the QUEST spherical tokamak

Abstract Electron Cyclotron Wall Conditioning with Neon gas (Ne-ECWC) has been performed on the normal conducting spherial tokamak QUEST with metal walls under a trapped particle configuration with mixed O and X-mode polarization EC waves with a frequency of 8.2 GHz and an injection power of 16 kW. The Ne-ECWC removes hydrogen from the wall with small neon retention. The Ne-ECWC decreases hydrogen recycling at the following tokamak discharges, contributing to an improvement of the following tokamak plasma start-up: the plasma current increases and the start-up timing of the plasma current shifts forward. However, defects such as voids and bubbles are formed on tungsten surface exposed to the Ne-ECWC plasma.