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A complete chain from a non-linear MHD plasma model simulation through full-wave code simulations implementing synthetic conventional reflectometry is established. For this purpose, the two-dimensional full-wave code REFMUL is employed together with MHD descriptions obtained from the JOREK code. First results of the integrated modeling are presented here where a type-I ELM crash, leading to a fast collapse of the H-mode pedestal, was taken as case-study. The REFMUL simulations were customized to implement synthetic reflectometry in conventional set-up using fixed frequency probing with O-mode waves. Posing challenging conditions for reflectometry, the type-I ELM crash reveals some of the merits and caveats of the diagnostic technique. This work also opens up the possibility to extend modeling to other MHD or ELM studies and provide support to experimental observations with reflectometry.

The use of advanced simulation has become increasingly more important in the planning, design, and assessment phases of future fusion plasma diagnostics, and in the interpretation of experimental data from existing ones. The design cycle of complex reflectometry systems, such as the ones being planned for next generation machines (IDTT and DEMO), relies heavily on the results produced by synthetic diagnostics, used for system performance evaluation and prediction, both crucial in the design process decision making. These synthetic diagnostics need realistic representations of all system components to incorporate the main effects that shape their behavior. Some of the most important elements that are required to be well modelled and integrated in simulations are the wave launcher structures, such as the waveguides, tapers, and antennas, as well as the vessel wall structures and access to the plasma. The latter are of paramount importance and are often neglected in this type of studies. Faithfully modelling them is not an easy task, especially in 3D simulations. The procedure herein proposed consists in using CAD models of a given machine, together with parameterizable models of the launcher, to produce a description suited for Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) 3D simulation, combining the capabilities of real-world CAD design with the power of simulation. However, CAD model geometric descriptions are incompatible with the ones used by standard FDTD codes. CAD software usually outputs models in a tessellated mesh while FDTD simulators use Volumetric Pixel (VOXEL) descriptions. To solve this interface problem, we implemented a pipeline to automatically convert complex CAD models of tokamak vessel components and wave launcher structures to the VOXEL input required by REFMUL3, a full wave 3D Maxwell FDTD parallel code. To illustrate the full procedure, a complex reflectometry synthetic diagnostic for IDTT was setup, converted and simulated. This setup includes 3 antennas recessed into the vessel wall, for thermal protection, one for transmission and reception, and two just for reception.

A phase contrast imaging (PCI) diagnostic has been developed for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. The PCI diagnostic provides a line-integrated measurement of turbulent electron density fluctuations, which is essential for understanding high performance scenarios that can lead to improved confinement at fusion-relevant temperatures and densities. The PCI system is also sensitive to coherent fluctuations, which arise from Alfvén eigenmodes or other MHD activity. This paper provides an overview of the hardware and the optical system and presents an example PCI measurement from the W7-X OP1.2b experimental campaign.

O-mode reflectometry, a technique to diagnose fusion plasmas, is foreseen as a source of real-time (RT) plasma position and shape measurements for control purposes in the coming generation of machines such as DEMO. It is, thus, of paramount importance to predict the behavior and capabilities of these new reflectometry systems using synthetic diagnostics. The use of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) time-dependent codes permits a comprehensive description of reflectometry, including aspects such as propagation in the plasma, the system location within the vacuum vessel, its access to the plasma or the signal processing techniques. FDTD is a computationally demanding technique, especially when it comes to three-dimensional (3D) simulations, which requires access to HPC facilities. This fact makes the use of two-dimensional (2D) codes much more common. It is important to have a good evaluation of the compromises made when using a 2D model in order to decide whether it is applicable to the problem under study, or if the problem rather requires a 3D approach. This work attempts to answer this question by comparing simulations of a potential plasma position reflectometer (PPR) at the Lower Field-Side (LFS) on IDTT carried out using two full-wave FDTD codes, REFMULF (2D) and REFMUL3 (3D). In particular, the simulations consider one of IDTT's foreseen plasma scenarios, namely, a Single Null (SN) configuration, at the Start Of Flat (SOF), the start of the flat top of the plasma current.

An important instrumental development work has been done in the last two decades in the field of neutron and gamma ray spectroscopic measurements of magnetic confinement plasmas. Starting from the present state of the art instrumentation installed at JET, this paper reviews the recent development that has been carried out within the EUROFUSION programme for the forthcoming high power JET D and DT campaign. This development was dedicated to the realization of new compact neutron and gamma-ray spectrometers which combine very high energy resolution (typically better than 5%) and MHz counting rate capabilities allowing for time resolution in the 10 ms time scale. One of the advantages offered by the compact dimensions of these spectrometers is to make possible their use in multiple sight-line camera configurations, such as for future burning plasma reactors (ITER and DEMO). New compact neutron spectrometers based on single crystal diamond detectors have been developed and installed at JET for measurements of the 14 MeV neutron spectrum. Measurements on a portable DT neutron generator have shown that neutron spectroscopy of the accelerated beam ions at unprecedented energy resolution (∼1% at 14 MeV) is possible, which opens up new opportunities for diagnosing DT plasmas. For what concerns gamma ray measurements, the JET gamma ray camera has been recently upgraded with new compact spectrometers based on a LaBr3 scintillator coupled to Silicon Photomultiplier with the dual aim to improve the spectroscopic and rate capabilities of the detectors. The upgrade camera system will reconstruct the spatial gamma ray emissivity from the plasma in the MeV energy range at MHz counting rates and energy resolution in the 2-4% range. This will allow physics studies of gamma rays produced by the interaction of fast ions with impurities in the plasma and bremsstrahlung emission from runaway electrons.

The single crystal CVD diamond detector (SDD) was installed in the torus hall of the Large Helical Device (LHD) to measure neutrons with high time resolution and neutron energy resolution. The LiF foil with 95.62 % of 6Li isotope enrichment pasted on the detector was used as the thermal neutron convertor as the energetic ions of 2.0 MeV alpha and 2.7 MeV triton particles generated in LiF foil and deposited the energy into SDD. SDD were exposed to the neutron field in the torus hall of the LHD during the 2nd campaign of the deuterium experiment. The total pulse height in SDD was linearly propotional to the neutron yield in a plasma operation in LHD over 4 orders of magnitude. The energetic alpha and triton were separately measured by SDD with LiF with the thickness of 1.9 μm, although SDD with LiF with the thickness of 350 μm showed a broadened peak due to the large energy loss of energetic particles generated in the bulk of LiF. The modeling with MCNP and PHITS codes well interpreted the pulse height spectra for SDD with LiF with different thicknesses. The results above demonstrated the sufficient time resolution and energy discrimination of SDD used in this work.

The measurement of the energy spectra and densities of alpha-particles and other fast ions are part of the ITER measurement requirements, highlighting the importance of energy-resolved energetic-particle measurements for the mission of ITER. However, it has been found in recent years that the velocity-space interrogation regions of the foreseen energetic-particle diagnostics do not allow these measurements directly. We will demonstrate this for gamma-ray spectroscopy (GRS), collective Thomson scattering (CTS), neutron emission spectroscopy and fast-ion D-alpha spectroscopy by invoking energy and momentum conservation in each case, highlighting analogies and differences between the different diagnostic velocity-space sensitivities. Nevertheless, energy spectra and densities can be inferred by velocity-space tomography which we demonstrate using measurements at JET and ASDEX Upgrade. The measured energy spectra agree well with corresponding simulations. At ITER, alpha-particle energy spectra and densities can be inferred for energies larger than 1.7 MeV by velocity-space tomography based on GRS and CTS. Further, assuming isotropy of the alpha-particles in velocity space, their energy spectra and densities can be inferred by 1D inversion of spectral single-detector measurements down to about 300 keV by CTS. The alpha-particle density can also be found by fitting a model to the CTS measurements assuming the alpha-particle distribution to be an isotropic slowing-down distribution.

International audience; This work presents an innovative usage of the GEMpix detector for soft X-rays (SXR) measurements aimed to make an estimate of the electron temperature of a Laser Produced Plasma (LPP). The GEMpix is a proportional gas detector based on three Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) with a Front-End Electronics (FEE) based on four Timepix chips. This FEE provides the Time over Threshold (ToT) acquisition mode pixel by pixel and then a digital measure of the released charge in the gas mixture. In addition, the charge can be amplified through the GEM foils with 4 orders of magnitude spanning gain offering, in this way, a big dynamic range and adjustable sensitivity. Chip design provides a threshold for each channel. All the thresholds are set in order to cut electronic noise and detect X-rays. In this configuration, a cut on the low amplitude signals is set, but the gain has been tuned in order to observe the main signal due to the soft X-rays reaching the detector. This detector works in an energy range between 2 to 15 keV . It offers good imaging properties, high efficiency and absolute calibration. It offers a good immunity to Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), as checked at VEGA-2 laser facility (hundreds of TW in about 30 fs). In these experiments, where the formation of warm dense matter produced by blast waves has been studied, a measure of the plasma temperature was required. This measurement was realized applying some filters on the active area of the detector, in correspondence of three chips. With this configuration a study of the GEMpix response due to the photons coming from the coronal plasma produced by the laser on the target has been done for each single shot. GEMpix revealed innovative and attractive features, compared to the state of the art where passive films or detectors based on indirect conversion are used, for SXR imaging and spectral analysis to infer the electron temperature.

International audience; Using a new framework for horn antenna optimization, a first frequency-independent horn antenna for a plasma positioning reflectometer (PPR) is designed. This hardware optimization is a new approach aiming on lowering the computational complexity of PPR interpretative models able to extract profiles and fluctuations of electron density and temperature from reflectometry measurements. PPR measurements are a strong candidate to provide real-time feedback for plasma position control in long-discharge fusion tokamaks such as ITER and DEMO, which requires fast interpretative models. Reducing the computational complexity of these models is therefore critical. In this paper, ray tracing simulations in the poloidal plane are used to compare different radiation patterns and evaluate them on multiple performance criteria. An antenna shape leading to a frequency-independent far-field radiation diagram is found with the PROFUSION optimizer and a prototype of this antenna is tested against an unoptimized conical reference antenna. The ray tracing performance criteria indicate that fundamental Gaussian frequency-independent antennas perform well, albeit in general worse than same-sized frequency-dependent antennas. Furthermore, it is seen that the pyramidal ITER gap 6 antenna performs well given the spatial constraints and that more performant antennas could be used, when more space was available. The prototype testing reveals challenges in obtaining frequencyindependent characteristics within a tokamak blanket environment, which is additionally complicated by misalignment risks.

openaire: EC/H2020/633053/EU//EUROfusion A synthetic diagnostic has been developed for the JET lost alpha scintillator probe, based on the ASCOT fast ion orbit following code and the AFSI fusion source code. The synthetic diagnostic models the velocity space distribution of lost fusion products in the scintillator probe. Validation with experimental measurements is presented, where the synthetic diagnostic is shown to predict the gyroradius and pitch angle of lost DD protons and tritons. Additionally, the synthetic diagnostic reproduces relative differences in total loss rates in multiple phases of the discharge, which can be used as a basis for total loss rate predictions.

A forward model to resolve the fast-ion loss velocity-space on a fast-ion loss detector (FILD) probe head (FILDSIM) has been extended, making it possible to perform real-time analysis of the FILD data ("real-time FILDSIM"). Parametric pre-processing with FILDSIM enables real-time mapping of the raw FILD measurements to the velocity-space of the fast-ion distribution reaching the FILD probe, which depends on the local magnetic field at the probe head. Such parametric pre-processing facilitates the study of fast-ion losses in stages of the discharge other than the flat-top, such as the ramp-up phase when changes in the local magnetic field at the probe head cannot be neglected. Real-time FILDSIM has been applied to the existing and newly installed FILDs in ASDEX Upgrade and will be used for the forthcoming FILD in MAST-Upgrade. Due to the larger size of the MAST-U FILD probe, the approximation used in FILDSIM of a uniform magnetic field in the FILD region has been generalised to the case of a non-uniform field, with gyro-orbits calculated numerically in this field. Universidad de Sevilla PP2016-7145 Comunidad Europea de Energía Atómica (EURATOM) 6333053

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) is a microwave diagnostic allowing measurements of a number of plasma parameters such as the bulk ion temperature, the plasma composition, drift velocities and fast ion velocity distribution function. A CTS system has been successfully installed and commissioned on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. The measured spectra are analyzed by the means of the CTS forward model eCTS and the Minerva scientific framework enabling the use of Bayesian inference of relevant plasma parameters. Here we discuss the options for further optimization of the CTS diagnostic and focus on two topics of importance for the inference of bulk ion temperature values from CTS spectra: influence of impurities on the CTS spectra and the width of the notch filters that are employed to protect the receiver from high-power radiation. In addition to that we discuss the possibility of effective charge measurements by CTS. We explore the existence of an optimal notch filter width.

The recent implementation of data processing tools and the code activity, aimed at the interpretation of spectra measured in the tokamak FTU with the renewed Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) system, are presented in this paper. Such instrumental renovation allowed investigating anomalous emissions originating from parametric decay instability (PDI) of an electron cyclotron (EC) pump wave in presence of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) rotating islands, as foreseen by recent theoretical models. Aim of these experiments is to study the possible effects of these anomalous phenomena on the EC power absorption and on the CTS used as standard thermal diagnostic. The codes here presented have been implemented for the calibration of the CTS spectra and for the proper visualization of signals, for direct comparison with the MHD spectrograms and with the plasma parameters. The software also allows analysing data acquired simultaneously with two radiometric systems as is possible in FTU since the beginning of 2016. The calibration of the spectra is necessary for comparing the actual power of the signals, that can span orders of magnitude, from the lowest compatible with thermal (CTS) radiation and providing information on the ions dynamic, to the strong anomalous emission theoretically expected from PDIs. The Thermal Collective Scattering (TCS) code, able either to predict or to interpret thermal ion spectra, has been optimized and integrated in the overall data analysis tools. The analysis of the data and the interpretation of the scenarios achieved in the experiments are presently underway using the tools here presented. © 2018 Istituto di Fisica del Plasma - CNR. Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab.

A new receiving antenna for collecting signals of the Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostics in FTU Tokamak has been recently installed. The squared corrugated section and the precisely defined length make it possible to receive from different directions by remotely steering the receiving mirrors. This type of Remote-Steering (RS) antennas, being studied on FTU for the DEMO Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system launch, is already installed on the W7- X stellarator and will be tested in the next campaign. The transmission of the signal from the antenna in the tokamak hall to the CTS diagnostics hall will be mainly realized by means of oversized circular corrugated waveguides carrying the hybrid HE11 (quasi-gaussian) waveguide mode, with inclusion of a special smooth-waveguide section and a short run of reduced-size square-corrugated waveguide through the tokamak bio-shield. The coupling between different waveguide types is made with ellipsoidal focusing mirrors, using quasi-optical matching formulas between the gaussian-shaped beams in input and output to the waveguides. In this work, after a complete study of feasibility of the overall line, a design for the receiving line will be proposed, in order to realize an executive layout to be used as a guideline for the commissioning phase. © 2018 ENEA. Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab.

Neutral particle analysis (NPA) is one of the few methods for diagnosing fast ions inside a plasma by measuring neutral atom fluxes emitted due to charge exchange reactions. The JET tokamak features an NPA diagnostic which measures neutral atom fluxes and energy spectra simultaneously for hydrogen, deuterium and tritium species. A synthetic NPA diagnostic has been developed and used to interpret these measurements to diagnose energetic particles in JET plasmas with neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. The synthetic NPA diagnostic performs a Monte Carlo calculation of the neutral atom fluxes in a realistic geometry. The 4D fast ion distributions, representing NBI ions, were simulated using the Monte Carlo orbit-following code ASCOT. Neutral atom density profiles were calculated using the FRANTIC neutral code in the JINTRAC modelling suite. Additionally, for rapid analysis, a scan of neutral profiles was precalculated with FRANTIC for a range of typical plasma parameters. These were taken from the JETPEAK database, which includes a comprehensive set of data from the flat-top phases of nearly all discharges in recent JET campaigns. The synthetic diagnostic was applied to various JET plasmas in the recent hydrogen campaign where different hydrogen/deuterium mixtures and NBI configurations were used. The simulated neutral fluxes from the fast ion distributions were found to agree with the measured fluxes, reproducing the slowing-down profiles for different beam isotopes and energies and quantitatively estimating the fraction of hydrogen and deuterium fast ions.

The ASCOT Fusion Source Integrator (AFSI) has been used to calculate neutron production rates and spectra corresponding to the JET 19-channel neutron camera (KN3) and the time-of-flight spectrometer (TOFOR) as ideal diagnostics, without detector-related effects. AFSI calculates fusion product distributions in 4D, based on Monte Carlo integration from arbitrary reactant distribution functions. The distribution functions were calculated by the ASCOT Monte Carlo particle orbit following code for thermal, NBI and ICRH particle reactions. Fusion cross-sections were defined based on the Bosch-Hale model and both DD and DT reactions have been included. Neutrons generated by AFSI-ASCOT simulations have already been applied as a neutron source of the Serpent neutron transport code in ITER studies. Additionally, AFSI has been selected to be a main tool as the fusion product generator in the complete analysis calculation chain: ASCOT - AFSI - SERPENT (neutron and gamma transport Monte Carlo code) - APROS (system and power plant modelling code), which encompasses the plasma as an energy source, heat deposition in plant structures as well as cooling and balance-of-plant in DEMO applications and other reactor relevant analyses. This conference paper presents the first results and validation of the AFSI DD fusion model for different auxiliary heating scenarios (NBI, ICRH) with very different fast particle distribution functions. Both calculated quantities (production rates and spectra) have been compared with experimental data from KN3 and synthetic spectrometer data from ControlRoom code. No unexplained differences have been observed. In future work, AFSI will be extended for synthetic gamma diagnostics and additionally, AFSI will be used as part of the neutron transport calculation chain to model real diagnostics instead of ideal synthetic diagnostics for quantitative benchmarking.

JETPEAK is a comprehensive stationary-state database and a work environment for JET diagnostics data, processed data and simulations suitable for a wide variety of analytical tasks. It enables systematic modelling and efficient interpretation of synthetic neutron diagnostics and validation of fast particle and fusion product calculations. We present a processing chain connecting the ASCOT orbit following code and AFSI fusion source simulator Monte-Carlo codes, providing synthetic diagnostics data for systematic comparison with measured data and model validation. The ASCOT code defines the reactant distribution functions and the additional AFSI module creates fusion products as 4D (R, z, E, pitch) distributions, which serve as input for synthetic diagnostics calculations. In this contribution we present synthetic neutron emission rates for the JET neutron camera lines of sight. First results show a fair agreement of the synthetic camera results with the horizontal JET neutron cameras and systematic differences, which are not understood, between the ratios of neutron emission measurements and modelled for the vertical and horizontal cameras.

The fast-ion phase-space coverage of the ASDEX Upgrade Fast-Ion Loss Detectors (FILD) has been estimated and the results are presented here. To that end, a numerical tool has been developed to determine particle orbits that can be accepted by each detector in the machine, depending on their radial position, without colliding to the first wall. Two different plasma shapes have been analyzed and results show excellent phase-space coverage for mostly all the detectors, especially for those located at the midplane and below it. The methodology developed provides an excellent way to estimate the signal of these detectors depending on the plasma scenario and can be easily extended to other machines. Also, this study can be complemented with thermal analysis to consider the structural integrity of the detectors, allowing determining optimal operation parameters both from the signal and safety standpoints.

A scintillating-fiber (Sci-Fi) detector has been employed to measure 14 MeV neutrons for the triton burnup study in the first deuterium plasma campaign of the Large Helical Device (LHD). The pulse-height spectra of the Sci-Fi detector are used to choose a suitable threshold for the discrimination of 14 MeV neutrons from a mix-radiation field of low-energy neutrons and gamma-rays. The measured pulse-height spectra of the Sci-Fi detector have two components with different decay slopes from the LHD experiment. To study the pulse-height property of the Sci-Fi detector, the pulse-height spectra on different energy neutrons have been measured by using the accelerator-based neutron source with d-D, p-Li, and d-Li reactions. Meanwhile, the simulations of the detector response have been performed by using the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS). In the LHD experiment, the first decay component of the pulse-height spectra in low-pulse-height region has been found to correspond to the signals induced by 2.45 MeV neutrons and gamma-rays. In addition, the high-pulse-height region has been confirmed by both the accelerator experiment and the PHITS calculation to correspond to the recoil-proton edge induced by triton burnup 14 MeV neutrons. The detection efficiency of 14 MeV neutrons for the Sci-Fi detector calculated by the PHITS code agrees well with the detection efficiency of 14 MeV neutrons for the Sci-Fi detector evaluated in the LHD experiment. The Sci-Fi detector can work as a standard detector for the 14 MeV neutron measurement with a suitable threshold.

The paper describes a new compact neutron spectrometer optimized for the detection of 2.5 MeV neutrons for fusion plasma applications. The first neutron spectroscopy measurements on a nuclear fusion plasma experiment (EAST) with this detector are also reported together with the data interpretation. The detector allowed separating the different neutron emission components from the plasma and to validate the effectiveness of the Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) heating. A possible improvement of the diagnostic has been also identified in order to increase the detector sensitivity to weak components of the neutron spectrum, such as those due to the Ion Cyclotron Resonace Heating (ICRH). The relatively simple response function of the (CLYC)-L-7 detector to 2.5 MeV neutrons together with its good capability in the n/gamma discrimination, makes this detector an interesting spectrometer for deuterium (D) plasma diagnostics. In particular, its compactness allows for integration in a multi-line of sight camera where space constraints are present.

The particular physics of Laser Produced Plasmas (LPP) needs some diagnostic requirements. Specifically, the X-ray monitoring of the plasma is known to be difficult since typically X-ray emissions are concentrated in bursts from a few tens of ps to few ns, based on the power and pulse time width of the laser. Therefore, the energy measurement of the radiation coming from a single experimental run is basically unfeasible using conventional techniques. Additional particles can be produced from LPP experiments, especially high energy gamma photons and electrons. As a case study in recent experiments, carried out on VEGA-2 laser facility (CLPU, Salamanca, Spain), the aim was to produce neutrons through photonuclear reactions on different types of solid targets. We have used the Timepix3 chip, in a "side-on" configuration, in order to produce a quick estimate of the gamma photons energy involved in the reactions. This detector, based on silicon, is realized with a single chip of 256 × 256 pixels bump-bonded with a 14 mm × 14 mm × 300 μm silicon layer. Interaction of gammas with the detector in this configuration produces some characteristic clusters of pixels and, for each cluster, a variety of physical and morphological parameters can be defined. Based on some of these parameters, we have characterized the detector response using some known laboratory gamma sources and the related Geant4 simulations. This allows quick energy discrimination for the gamma photons coming from different experimental runs.

During the last years the Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) system installed on the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU), operating at 140 GHz, has been exploited to investigate different kinds of phenomena: high-frequency daughter waves by Parametric Decay Instabilities, which, under certain conditions, are recently presumed to be conceivable even under routine ECRH scenarios, and bulk ions thermal emissions stimulated by a 140 GHz gyrotron beam. A new receiving line, giving rise to a second further line of sight from the plasma during the scattering experiments and integrated in the CTS antenna, has been recently completed and installed. Such new line will be useful to recognise signals originating in the volume of beams cross from the ones coupled outside or also to monitor the gyrotron's spectrum in real-time during the shot. The present status of this new installation is shown in the paper.

The goal of the European Fusion Roadmap is to deliver fusion electricity to the grid early in the second half of this century. It breaks the quest for fusion energy into eight missions, and for each of them it describes a research and development programme to address all the open technical gaps in physics and technology and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe. The roadmap covers three periods: the short term, which runs parallel to the European Research Framework Programme Horizon 2020, the medium term and the long term. ITER is the key facility of the roadmap as it is expected to achieve most of the important milestones on the path to fusion power. Thus, the vast majority of present resources are dedicated to ITER and its accompanying experiments. The medium term is focussed on taking ITER into operation and bringing it to full power, as well as on preparing the construction of a demonstration power plant DEMO, which will for the first time demonstrate fusion electricity to the grid around the middle of this century. Building and operating DEMO is the subject of the last roadmap phase: the long term. Clearly, the Fusion Roadmap is tightly connected to the ITER schedule. Three key milestones are the first operation of ITER, the start of the DT operation in ITER and reaching the full performance at which the thermal fusion power is 10 times the power put in to the plasma. The Engineering Design Activity of DEMO needs to start a few years after the first ITER plasma, while the start of the construction phase will be a few years after ITER reaches full performance. In this way ITER can give viable input to the design and development of DEMO. Because the neutron fluence in DEMO will be much higher than in ITER, it is important to develop and validate materials that can handle these very high neutron loads. For the testing of the materials, a dedicated 14 MeV neutron source is needed. This DEMO Oriented Neutron Source (DONES) is therefore an important facility to support the fusion roadmap.

The triple Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) is a good candidate for the observation of the plasma volume emitting X-rays photons in the energy band up to 30 keV. The GEM camera system can be simply installed outside the port of a fusion device and it's a micropattern proportional gas detector which consists of an ionization gap, where X-rays photon conversion occurs, three consecutive foils working as amplification stage and finally a dedicated printed circuit board. Its simple experimental setup can be made in different configurations with 1D or 2D imaging possibilities: perpendicular GEM camera allows a 1D emissivity profile reconstruction instead a tangential GEM camera allows a poloidal cross-section image. Moreover, they offer high sensitivity, noise free, optical flexibility (zooming and tilting, magnification 10× up to 30×), high contrast, high dynamic range (6 orders of magnitude) and good time resolution (submillisecond). In this work several experimental results already observed on the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) and the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) devices will be presented. The perpendicular installation on FTU allows a 1D radial profile with 128 lines of sight, while thanks to the 2D tangential view of the plasma, the reconstruction of the cross section has been done on KSTAR. Between them there are dynamic and precursors of sawtooth, effects of Edge Localized Mode (ELM) in the core and possible interplay between core and edge in ELMs (high m modes), effects of plasma rotation in the core, dynamic of injected impurities in the outer part of the plasma or also impurity accumulation and localized effects of additional heating. Installation of GEM systems is planned on Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) also for their robustness and flexibility X-rays detection in presence of high radiative environments (neutrons and gammas). In future applications on the above mentioned fusion devices, another possibility under evaluation is to use standard tomographic methods using two orthogonal GEM camera systems. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab.

A new compact gamma-ray spectrometer based on a Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) coupled to a LaBr3(Ce) crystal has been developed for the upgrade of the Gamma Camera (GC) of JET, where it must operate in a high intensity neutron/gamma-ray admixed field. The work presents the results of an experiment aimed at characterizing the effect of 14 MeV neutron irradiation on both LaBr3(Ce) and SiPM that compose the full detector. The pulse height spectrum from neutron interactions with the crystal has been measured and is successfully reproduced by MCNP simulations. It is calculated that about 8% of the impinging neutrons leave a detectable signal of which less than < 4% of the events occur in the energy region above 3 MeV, which is of interest for gamma-ray spectroscopy applications. Neutron irradiation also partly degrades the performance of the SiPM and this is mostly manifested as an increase of the dark current versus the neutron fluence. However, it was found that the SiPM can be still operated up to a fluence of 4×1010 n/cm2, which is the highest value we experimentally tested. Implications of these results for GC measurements at JET are discussed. © 2017 Istituto di Fisica del Plasma - CNR. Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab.

Since 2006 the Quantum Electronics and Plasma Physics (QEP) Research Group together with ENEA FusTech of Frascati have been working on dust re-suspension inside tokamaks and its potential capability to jeopardize the integrity of future fusion nuclear plants (i.e. ITER or DEMO) and to be a risk for the health of the operators. Actually, this team is working with the improved version of the "STARDUST" facility, i.e. "STARDUST-Upgrade". STARDUST-U facility has four new air inlet ports that allow the experimental replication of Loss of Vacuum Accidents (LOVAs). The experimental campaign to detect the different pressurization rates, local air velocity, temperature, have been carried out from all the ports in different accident conditions and the principal results will be analyzed and compared with the numerical simulations obtained through a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) code. This preliminary thermo fluid-dynamic analysis of the accident is crucial for numerical model development and validation, and for the incoming experimental campaign of dust resuspension inside STARDUST-U due to well-defined accidents presented in this paper.

A method to determine the gamma-ray emissivity profile from measurements along a few multiple collimated lines of sight in thermonuclear plasmas is presented. The algorithm is based on a generalisation of the known Abel inversion and takes into account the non circular shape of the plasma flux surfaces and the limited number of data points available. The method is applied to synthetic experimental measurements originating from parabolic and non parabolic JET gamma-ray emissivity profiles, where the aim is to compare the results of the inversion with the original, known input parameters. We find that profile parameters, such as the peak value, width and centre of the emissivity, are determined with an accuracy between 1 and 20% for parabolic and 2 to 25% for non parabolic profiles, respectively, which compare to an error at the 10% level for the input data. The results presented in this paper are primarily of relevance for the reconstruction of emissivity profiles from radiation measurements in tokamaks, but the method can also be applied to measurements along a sparse set of collimated lines of sight in general applications, provided that the surfaces at constant emissivity are known to have rotational simmetry.

Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is a large optimized stellarator (B=2.5T, V=30m3) aiming at demonstrating the reactor relevance of the optimized stellarators. In 2015 W7-X will begin its first operation phase (OP1.1) with five inertially cooled inboard limiters made of graphite. Assuming the heat loads can be spread out evenly between the limiters, 1 second discharges at 2 MW of ECRH heating power could be run in OP1.1. The expected plasma parameters will be sufficient to demonstrate the readiness of the installed diagnostics and even to run a first physics program. The diagnostics available for this first operation phase, including some special limiter diagnostics, and their capabilities are being presented. A shorter version of this contribution is due to be published in PoS at: 1st EPS conference on Plasma Diagnostics

Anomalous emissions were found over the last few years in spectra of Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostics in tokamak devices such as TEXTOR, ASDEX and FTU, in addition to real CTS signals. The signal frequency, down-shifted with respect to the probing one, suggested a possible origin in Parametric Decay Instability (PDI) processes correlated with the presence of magnetic islands and occurring for pumping wave power levels well below the threshold predicted by conventional models. A threshold below or close to the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) power levels could limit, under certain circumstances, the use of the ECRH in fusion devices. An accurate characterization of the conditions for the occurrence of this phenomenon and of its consequences is thus of primary importance. Exploiting the front-steering configuration available with the real-time launcher, the implementation of a new CTS setup now allows studying these anomalous emission phenomena in FTU under conditions of density and wave injection geometry that are more similar to those envisaged for CTS in ITER. The upgrades of the diagnostic are presented as well as a few preliminary spectra detected with the new system during the very first operations in 2014. The present work has been carried out under an EUROfusion Enabling Research project. A shorter version of this contribution is due to be published in PoS at: 1st EPS conference on Plasma Diagnostics © 2015 Istituto di Fisica del Plasma - CNR.

The Core Plasma Thomson Scattering (CPTS) diagnostic on ITER performs measure- ments of the electron temperature and density profiles which are critical to the understanding of the ITER plasma. The diagnostic must satisfy the ITER project requirements, which translate to requirements on performance as well as reliability, safety and engineering. The implications are particularly challenging for beam dump lifetime, the need for continuous active alignment of the diagnostic during operation, allowable neutron flux in the interspace and the protection of the first mirror from plasma deposition. The CPTS design has been evolving over a number of years. One recent improvement is that the collection optics have been modified to include freeform sur- faces. These freeform surfaces introduce extra complexity to the manufacturing but provide greater flexibility in the design. The greater flexibility introduced allows for example to lower neutron throughput or use fewer surfaces while improving optical performance. Performance assessment has shown that scattering from a 1064 nm laser will be sufficient to meet the measurement require- ments, at least for the system at the start of operations. Optical transmission at ? < 600 nm is expected to degrade over the ITER lifetime due to fibre darkening and deposition on the first mirror. For this reason, it is proposed that the diagnostic should additionally include measurements of TS 'depolarised light' and a 1319 nm laser system. These additional techniques have different spectral and polarisation dependencies compared to scattering from a 1064 nm laser and hence provide greater robustness into the inferred measurements of T e and n e in the core.

The stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) has been designed to show that optimized stellarators can achieve and sustain fusion relevant plasma conditions. One of the main optimization criteria was the reduction of the neoclassical transport, which is considered as one of the most critical issues of the stellarator concept. While the demonstration of the neoclassical optimization will definitely be one of the most important aspects of W7-X, several additional topics are equally important due to the boundary condition that fusion relevant conditions should be demonstrated and sustained. Hence, low neoclassical transport needs to be achieved in a scenario which is compatible with divertor operation, high densities, and an acceptable impurity concentration without further accumulation during stable operation. So far, these issues have mostly not been tackled experimentally in the first experimental campaign. W7-X had its first plasma in December 2015 and the first operational campaign (OP1.1) was mainly intended for testing and commissioning purposes. In OP1.1, W7-X was operated in a limiter configuration without divertor and at low densities. Nevertheless, valuable insights could be gained which help to prepare and understand the first experiments with a test divertor planned to start in the second half of 2017. As will be shown in this contribution, one of the interesting observations in OP1.1 was the presence of an operational limit, where above a critical density the power balance seems to be dominated by radiative losses. Such a behavior is well-known from other stellarator experiments and while it can be expected that this critical density is particularly low for OP1.1 (high impurity concentration connected to the limiter operation and conservative wall conditioning), this observation also shows that impurity related radiation losses will be an important issue to keep track of as the density is progressively increased in the next experimental campaigns of W7-X.

Semiconductor detectors based on SiC have been investigated to characterize the radiations (photons and particles) emitted from different sources, such as radioactive sources, electron guns, X-ray tubes and laser-generated plasmas. Detectors show high response velocity, low leakage current, high energy gap and high radiation hardness. Their high detection efficiency permits to use the detectors in spectroscopic mode and in time-of-flight (TOF) approach, generally employed to monitor low and high radiation fluxes, respectively. Using the laser start signal, they permit to study the properties of the generated plasma in vacuum by measuring accurately the particle velocity and energy using pulsed lasers at low and high intensities. Possible applications will be reported and discussed.

High intensity laser radiation propagating in a plasma suffers deep changes concerning both its spatial and spectral distribution. These changes can give information about the kind of the developed interaction. In particular the Self Phase Modulation (SPM) of the impinging laser radiation is currently used to evidence fast variation of the electron plasma density, produced for example by the target ionization or ponderomotive forces. The SPM effects dramatically increase as the laser pulse decreases and this is the reason for why they have to be specially considered in the experiments in which femtosecond laser pulses are used.

We have upgraded the multi-channel microwave reflectometer system which uses a frequency comb as a source and measure the distribution of the density fluctuation caused by magneto-hydro dynamics instability. The previous multi-channel system was composed of the Ka-band, and the U-band system has been developed. Currently, the U-band system has eight frequency channels, which are 43.0, 45.0, 47.0, 49.0, 51.0, 53.0, 55.0, and 57.0 GHz, in U-band. Before the installation to the Large Helical Device (LHD), several tests for understanding the system characteristics, which are the phase responsibility, the linearity of output signal, and others, have been carried out. The in situ calibration in LHD has been done for the cross reference. In the neutral beam injected plasma experiments, we can observe the density fluctuation of the interchange mode and obtain the radial distribution of fluctuation amplitude.

Polarimetric Thomson scattering (TS) is a novel diagnostic technique proposed as an alternative to conventional (spectral) TS, for the measurement of the electron temperature Te and density ne in very hot fusion plasmas. Contrary to spectral TS, which is based on the reconstruction of the Doppler broadened frequency spectrum, in polarimetric TS Te is determined from the depolarization of the scattered radiation. The technique is suitable for ITER, where it is expected to be competitive with conventional spectral TS for measurements in the highest Te range, specially in backward-like conditions with the scattering angle 90° ? ?

The recently completed MST2 upgrade to the Thomson scattering (TS) system on TCV (Tokamak a Configuration Variable) at the Swiss Plasma Center aims to provide an enhanced spatial and spectral resolution while maintaining the high level of diagnostic flexibility for the study of TCV plasmas. The MST2 (Medium Sized Tokamak) is a work program within the Eurofusion ITER physics department, aimed at exploiting Europe's medium sized tokamak programs for a better understanding of ITER physics. This upgrade to the TCV Thomson scattering system involved the installation of 40 new compact 5-channel spectrometers and modifications to the diagnostics fiber optic design. The complete redesign of the fiber optic backplane incorporates fewer larger diameter fibers, allowing for a higher resolution in both the core and edge of TCV plasmas along the laser line, with a slight decrease in the signal to noise ratio of Thomson measurements. The 40 new spectrometers added to the system are designed to cover the full range of temperatures expected in TCV, able to measure electron temperatures (T-e) with high precision between (6 eV and 20 keV). The design of these compact spectrometers stems originally from the design utilized in the MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) TS system located in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. This design was implemented on TCV with an overall layout of optical fibers and spectrometers to achieve an overall increase in the spatial resolution, specifically a resolution of approximately 1% of the minor radius within the plasma pedestal region. These spectrometers also enhance the diagnostic spectral resolution, especially within the plasma edge, due to the low T-e measurement capabilities. These additional spectrometers allow for a much greater diagnostic flexibility, allowing for quality full Thomson profiles in 75% of TCV plasma configurations.

In thermonuclear plasmas, emission tomography uses integrated measurements along lines of sight (LOS) to determine the two-dimensional (2-D) spatial distribution of the volume emission intensity. Due to the availability of only a limited number views and to the coarse sampling of the LOS, the tomographic inversion is a limited data set problem. Several techniques have been developed for tomographic reconstruction of the 2-D gamma and neutron emissivity on JET. In specific experimental conditions the availability of LOSs is restricted to a single view. In this case an explicit reconstruction of the emissivity profile is no longer possible. However, machine learning classification methods can be used in order to derive the type of the distribution. In the present approach the classification is developed using the theory of belief functions which provide the support to fuse the results of independent clustering and supervised classification. The method allows to represent the uncertainty of the results provided by different independent techniques, to combine them and to manage possible conflicts.

The COMPASS tokamak at IPP Prague is a small-size device with an ITER-relevant plasma geometry and operating in both the Ohmic as well as neutral beam assisted H-modes since 2012. A basic set of diagnostics installed at the beginning of the COMPASS operation has been gradually broadened in type of diagnostics, extended in number of detectors and collected channels and improved by an increased data acquisition speed. In recent years, a significant progress in diagnostic development has been motivated by the improved COMPASS plasma performance and broadening of its scientific programme (L-H transition and pedestal scaling studies, magnetic perturbations, runaway electron control and mitigation, plasma-surface interaction and corresponding heat fluxes, Alfvenic and edge localized mode observations, disruptions, etc.). In this contribution, we describe major upgrades of a broad spectrum of the COMPASS diagnostics and discuss their potential for physical studies. In particular, scrape-off layer plasma diagnostics will be represented by a new concept for microsecond electron temperature and heat flux measurements - we introduce a new set of divertor Langmuir and ball-pen probe arrays, newly constructed probe heads for reciprocating manipulators as well as several types of standalone probes. Among optical tools, an upgraded high-resolution edge Thomson scattering diagnostic for pedestal studies and a set of new visible light and infrared (plasma-surface interaction investigations) cameras will be described. Particle and beam diagnostics will be covered by a neutral particle analyzer, diagnostics on a lithium beam, Cherenkov detectors (for a direct detection of runaway electrons) and neutron detectors. We also present new modifications of the microwave reflectometer for fast edge density profile measurements.