Small-to-midsized stellarator experiments: topology, confinement and turbulence

Abstract

The very large stellarator experiments LHD (operating) and W7X (under construction) move stellarator-confined plasmas into the near-reactor regime. Continuing experiments on smaller devices operating at heating powers from kilowatts to a few megawatts are exploring the effects of magnetic configuration stability and turbulence on plasma confinement to improve stellarator performance and our understanding of general toroidal confinement physics. Key issues being explored are the relation of rational magnetic surfaces and magnetic configuration characteristics such as helical ripple to plasma transport, confinement scaling and turbulence. The robust macroscopic stability of currentless stellarator plasma is a major contributing factor to these studies. Many of the phenomena most clearly evident in stellarators are increasingly implicated in tokamak experiments as well.