Study of the power exhaust and the role of impurities in the Torus Experiment for Technological Oriented Research (TEXTOR)

Controlled application of radiating impurities in the boundary layer can help to solve the problem of power exhaust in a fusion reactor. Experiments in the Torus Experiment for Technological Oriented Research (TEXTOR) [J. Nucl. Mater. 145-147, 3 (1987)] are presented, which show that impurities with sufficiently high atomic number (≥10) are well suited for this purpose. Injection of neon, a gas recycled at the wall, enabled the establishment of a quasistationary radiating boundary layer, from which more than 90% of the input power was emitted. The required neon density was established by means of a feedback control for the neon influx, which was made possible by the toroidal pump limiter Advanced Limiter Technology (ALT-II) [J. Nucl. Mater. 162-164, 115 (1989)]. Alternatively, or in addition silicon was introduced as a condensing element - either by surface reactions from siliconized walls or by silane [SiH(D)₄] injection - which revealed self-controlling mechanisms effective with changing plasma parameters. In neither case was a significant increase in central impurity concentration observed and good energy confinement time was maintained up to the highest plasma densities. Based on the information from various refined edge diagnostics, the underlying mechanisms for the buildup of a radiating plasma mantle and the interdependences of neon and silicon on other impurities are discussed.