Integrated control for access to and maintenance of Wide-Pedestal QH-mode
2024 Research Campaign, Plasma Control
Purpose of Experiment
The goal of this experiment is to demonstrate real-time prediction and avoidance of a particular instability not tolerable by future reactors known as edge-localized modes (ELMs) in the wide-pedestal quiescent H-mode (WPQH) scenario. WPQH is a promising reactor-relevant scenario, as it achieves high confinement without an intrinsic tendency toward ELMy behavior, which stands in contrast with other standard high-confinement scenarios that typically exhibit ELMs at a frequency of 10-100 Hz. However, WPQH can still be susceptible to “breakthrough ELMs,” and this experiment seeks to predict these and preemptively engage an external actuator to steer the plasma’s evolution away from its forecasted ELMy fate.