Abstract
Fusion power has been increased by a factor of 3 in DIII-D by tailoring the pressure profile to avoid the kink instability in -mode plasmas. The resulting plasmas are found to have neoclassical ion confinement. This reduction in transport losses in beam-heated plasmas with negative central shear is correlated with a dramatic reduction in density fluctuations. Improved magnetohydrodynamic stability is achieved by controlling the plasma pressure profile width. In deuterium plasmas the highest gain (the ratio of fusion power to input power), was 0.0015, corresponding to an equivalent of 0.32 in a deuterium-tritium plasma.
- Received 23 February 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.2714
©1996 American Physical Society