RESISTIVE WALL MODES AND PLASMA ROTATION IN DIII-D

A271 RESISTIVE WALL MODES AND PLASMA ROTATION IN DIII-D. The stabilization of the resistive wall mode (RWM) by toroidal plasma rotation has been demonstrated in neutral beam heated DIII-D discharges for values of {beta} up to 70% above the no-wall stability limit. The stabilizing effect of plasma rotation is explained by assuming some dissipation, which is caused by the rapid plasma flow through a perturbed magnetic field. Sufficient plasma rotation is predicted to extend the operating regime of tokamaks from the conventional no-wall {beta} limit up to the ideal wall {beta} limit. While plasma rotation has a stabilizing effect on the RWM, a finite amplitude RWM also increases the drag on the plasma, which leads to a non-linear interaction between the RWM and the plasma rotation. A good understanding of the underlying dissipation mechanism is crucial for reliable predictions of the plasma rotation which will be required for wall-stabilization in a burning-plasma experiment. In order to measure the stabilizing effect of plasma rotation on the RWM the technique of active MHD spectroscopy, which was previously applied to MHD modes at frequencies above 10 kHz, is extended to frequencies of a few Hz