High performance stationary discharges in the DIII-D tokamak

Recent experiments in the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] have demonstrated high β with good confinement quality under stationary conditions. Two classes of stationary discharges are observed—low q95 discharges with sawteeth and higher q95 without sawteeth. The discharges are deemed stationary when the plasma conditions are maintained for times greater than the current profile relaxation time. In both cases the normalized fusion performance (βNH89P/q952) reaches or exceeds the value of this parameter projected for Qfus=10 in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) design [R. Aymar et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 44, 519 (2002)]. The presence of sawteeth reduces the maximum achievable normalized β, while confinement quality (confinement time relative to scalings) is largely independent of q95. Even with the reduced β limit, the normalized fusion performance maximizes at the lowest q95. Projections to burning plasma conditions are discussed, including the methodology of the projection and the key physics issues which still require investigation.