The edge plasma plays key roles in tokamak devices: generates the edge transport-barrier yielding the L-H core confinement transition, distributes the core charged-particle energy to surrounding material surfaces, shields the core from impurities, and removes helium ash in fusion plasmas. The transport of density, momentum, and energy in the near-separatrix edge region, and the corresponding self-consistent electrostatic potential, require a two-dimensional description, here incorporated into the UEDGE code. In the direction across the B-field, both turbulent transport and classical cross-field flows are important. The role of classical flows is analyzed in detail in the presence of an assumed diffusive turbulent transport. Results and explanations are given for the generation of radial electric field near the separatrix, edge plasma asymmetries and differences between double-null DIII-D and NSTX devices, comparisons with DIII-D diagnostics for single-null divertor, and core/edge transport coupling.

Journal of a trip to a GAR encampment in Washington, DC. Very detailed description of his trip to the White House. Includes description of a day spent sight seeing in Cleveland, OH on the return trip to Michigan.

Plasmas in edge regions of tokamaks can be very optically thick to hydrogen lines. Strong line radiation introduces a non-local coupling between different regions of the plasma and can significantly affect the ionization and energy balance. These effects can be very important, but they are not included in current edge plasma simulations. We report here on progress in self-consistently including the effects of a magnetic field, line radiation and plasma transport in modeling tokamak edge plasmas.

In the scope of designing future nuclear fusion reactors, a clear understanding of the plasma-wall interaction is mandatory. Indeed, a predictive estimation of heat flux impacting the surface and the subsequent emission of impurities from the wall is necessary to ensure material integrity and energy confinement performances. In that perspective, the fluid code SolEdge2D has been developed to simulate plasma transport in the tokamak edge plasma. The plasma-wall interaction is modeled using an innovative penalization technique. This method enables in particular to take complex plasma facing components geometry into account. In parallel to this numerical effort, a theoretical work has been achieved to find appropriate corrections to fluid closures when collisionality drops. The study of stochastic 1D models has been realized in collaboration with physicists from the CSDC group in Florence. A generalized Fourier law taking long range spatio-temporal correlations has been found to properly account for ballistic transport in the low collisional regime. This formulation is expected to be used to model parallel heat flux or turbulent cross-field transport in tokamak plasmas.

Nuclear fusion could offer a new source of stable, non-CO2 emitting energy. Today, tokamaks offer the best performance by confining a high temperature plasma by means of a magnetic field. Two of the major technological challenges for the operation of tokamaks are the power extraction and the confinement of plasma over long periods. These issues are associated with the transport of particles and heat, which is determined by turbulence, from the central plasma to the edge zone. In this thesis, we model turbulence in the edge plasma. We study in particular the divertor configuration, in which the central plasma is isolated from the walls by means of an additional magnetic field. This complex magnetic geometry is simulated with the fluid turbulence code TOKAM3X, developed in collaboration between the IRFM at CEA and the M2P2 laboratory of the University of Aix-Marseille.A comparison with simulations in simplified geometry shows a similar intermittent nature of turbulence. Nevertheless, the amplitude of the fluctuations, which has a maximum at the equatorial plane, is greatly reduced near the X-point, where the field lines become purely toroidal, in agreement with the recent experimental data. The simulations in divertor configuration show a significantly higher confinement than in circular geometry. A partial inhibition of the radial transport of particles at the X-point contributes to this improvement. This mechanism is potentially important for understanding the transition from low confinement mode to high confinement mode, the intended operational mode for ITER.

A new global 3D two-fluid code, GDB, based on the drift-reduced Braginskii model has been developed and tested to study the turbulent transport across the entire tokamak edge region: from plasma sources in the inner core to plasma sinks in the outer-most scrape-off layer (SOL). In this code, profiles of plasma density, electron and ion temperature, electric potential, magnetic flux and parallel flow are evolved self-consistently. Milliseconds-long simulations are carried out in a shifted-circle magnetic configuration with realistic Alcator C-Mod tokamak inner wall limited (IWL) discharge parameters. The resistive ballooning instability is identified as the predominant driver of edge turbulence in the L-mode regime. Simulations show, in agreement with experimental observations, as the simulation moves towards density limit regime by increasing density, the turbulent transport is drastically enhanced and the plasma profiles are relaxed; on the other hand, as the simulation approaches to the H-mode regime by increasing temperature, the turbulent transport is suppressed and plasma profiles are steepened with a pedestal-like structure forming just inside of the separatrix. Radial transport level and turbulence statistics of these simulations also qualitatively match the experimental measurements. Spontaneous E x B rotation in the electron diamagnetic drift direction in the closed flux region are observed in all cases. It can be explained based on the steady state ion continuity relation [mathematical equation]. E x B rotation in the closed flux region is found mostly cancels the ion diamagnetic drift as H-mode-like regimes are approached, and exceeds it by a factor of two or more at lower temperatures due to parallel ion flows.

For better understanding and characterization of non-diffusive transport occurring in the NSTX tokamak edge plasma, we performed extensive simulations of NSTX edge plasmas with the multi-fluid two-dimensional UEDGE code by using realistic model for impurity sputtering sources and hybrid model for anomalous cross-field transport. Our cross-field transport model incorporates the effects of non-diffusive intermittent transport by introducing anomalous convective velocities whose spatial profile is adjusted for each ion charge state to match available experimental data. The research in 2002-2005 financial years was focused on the following areas: (i) development of capabilities for UEDGE simulation of NSTX spectroscopy data (i.e., the 3D real-geometry postprocessor UEDGE tools for comparison between UEDGE and experimental data), (ii) simulation of multi-diagnostic data from NSTX with UEDGE, (iii) study of anomalous cross-field convective transport of impurity ions, (iv) analysis of divertor plasma opacity to resonance radiation, and (v) study the effects of ballooning-like anomalous cross-field transport and spherical-torus magnetic configuration on parallel plasma flows in the SOL.