Supershot Performance with Reverse Magnetic Shear in TFTR
Authors: S. H. Batha, F. M. Levinton, M.C. Zarnstorff, et al.
Discharges with large regions of reversed magnetic shear and good energy and particle confinement have been produced in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. These plasmas were created by heating the plasma during a rapid plasma current increase. The stability of these discharges is dependent on the shape of the q profile, in particular the value and location of the minimum value of q. Control of the q profile by optimizing the plasma startup, prelude start time, the neutral-beam directionality during the prelude heating phase, and the plasma current ramp rate is demonstrated. High-performance discharges, created by injecting more than 18 to 25 MW of neutral beam power into a plasma with reverse shear, are also described.