Pellet fuelling in Tore Supra long discharges

A new pellet injector, able to inject continuously hydrogen or deuterium pellets, was installed on Tore Supra in 2003 and preliminary experiments aiming to fuel long discharges were performed. In combination with Lower Hybrid (LH) Current Drive, pure pellet fuelled discharges lasting up to 2 min were achieved. The LH power was switched off just before each pellet injection (LH notching) to maintain a relatively deep pellet penetration by reducing the energy of the super-thermal electrons driven by the LH wave. A comparison, based on a particle balance study, between two comparable pellet fuelled and gas fuelled discharges has been done. In the two cases, the volume average density is the same and the analysis shows that the particle source, the pumped flux and the wall retention are similar and appear to be independent of the fuelling method for the low plasma current and density conditions considered (Ip = 0.6 MA, 〈ne〉 = 1.5 × 1019 m−3).