High. beta. and ECRH studies in DIII-D

The DIII-D high and low beta stability results have established the basic feasibility of the divertor and H-mode configurations up to elongation 2.0 for next generation tokamaks. The 6.8% beta T achieved has already exceeded projected operating requirements of next generation devices. beta T > 6% has been sustained for 800 ms. Stability calculations and patterns of MHD mode behavior suggest a central expanding zone of ballooning instabilities leads ultimately to unstable m/n=2/1 modes which cause beta collapse or disruption. The pressure gradient at the plasma edge just reaches the first regime ballooning limit prior to ELMs. ECRH has proven effective for generating H-mode, sawtooth suppression, and ELM suppression.