LHD Helical Divertor

"The Large Helical Device (LHD) now under construction is a heliotron/torsatron device with a closed divertor system. The edge LHD magnetic structure has been studied in detail. A peculiar feature of the configuration is existence of edge surface layers , a complicated three dimensional magnetic structure which does not, however, seem to hamper the expected divertor functions . Two divertor operational modes are being considered for the LHD experiment, high density, cold radiative divertor operation as a safe heat removal scheme and high temperature divertor plasma operation. In the latter operation, a divertor plasma with temperature of a few kev, generated by efficient pumping, expects to lead to significant improvement in core plasma confinement. Conceptual designs of the LHD divertor components are under way.