Operation and coupling of LH waves with the ITER-like wall at JET

Abstract: In this paper important aspects of Lower Hybrid (LH) operation with the ITER Like Wall (ILW) [1] at JET are reported. Impurity release during LH operation was investigated and it was found that there is no significant Be increase with LH power. Concentration of W was analysed in more detail and it was concluded that LH contributes negligibly to its increase. No cases of W accumulation in LH-only heating experiments were observed so far. LH wave coupling was studied and optimised to achieve the level of system performance similar to before ILW installation. Measurements by Li-beam were used to study systematic dependencies of the SOL density on the gas injection rate from a dedicated gas introduction module and the LH power and launcher position. Experimental results are supported by SOL transport modelling. Observations of arcs in front of the LH launcher and hotspots on magnetically connected sections of the vessel are reported. Overall, a relatively troublefree operation of the LH system up to 2.5MW of coupled Radio Frequency (RF) power in L-mode plasma was achieved with no indication that the power cannot be increased further.