Drift stabilization of internal resistive-wall modes in tokamaks

Konovalov, S. V.; Mikhailovskii, A. B.*; Tsypin, V. S.*; Galvo, R. M. 0.*; Nascimento, I. C.*

The problem of drift stabilization of internal resistive-wall modes (RWMs) in tokamaks is theoretically investigated. The basic assumption of our model is that these modes are unstable in the absence of a conducting wall and stable in the presence of a close-fitting ideally conducting wall, when drift effects are neglected. Stability of the internal RWMs, was estimated for several existing tokamaks contributing to the ITER data base, namely, AUG (ASDEX-Upgrade), DIII-D, JET, TFTR and JT-60U, as well as for the projected ITER-FEAT. It is concluded that although drift effects do not stabilize the internal RWMs in current devices, they should be effective for suppressing these modes in reactor-grade tokamaks.