Prevention of the 2/1 neoclassical tearing mode in DIII-D

Prater, R.*; La Haye, R. J.*; Luce, T. C.*; Petty, C. C.*; Strait, E. J.*; Ferron, J. R.*; Humphreys, D. A.*; Isayama, Akihiko; Lohr, J.*; Nagasaki, Kazunobu*; Politzer, P. A.*; Wade, M. R.*; Welander, A. S.*

Onset of the m/n=2/1 neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) has been prevented in high-performance DIII-D discharges using localized electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD). Active tracking of the =2 surface location, using real-time equilibrium reconstructions with motional Stark effect data, allows the current drive to be maintained at the rational surface even in the absence of a detectable mode. With the application of this technique in DIII-D hybrid discharges, the 2/1 mode is avoided and good energy confinement is maintained for more than 1 second with at the estimated n=1 no-wall stability limit for ideal kink modes ( approximately equals 3.9 % and normalized beta approximately equals 3.2). The results can be understood through modeling using the modified Rutherford equation.