Gyrokinetic study of turbulence suppression in a JET-ILW power scan

For exploring tokamak operation regimes that deliver both high β and good energy confinement, power scans at JET with ITER-like wall have been performed. Relatively weak degradation of the confinement time coincides with increased core temperature of the ions at high power. The changes in core turbulence characteristics during a power scan with an optimized (broad) q profile are analyzed by means of nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations. The increase in β is crucial for stabilizing ion temperature gradient driven turbulence, accompanied by increased ion to electron temperature ratio, the presence of a dynamic fast ion species, as well as the geometric stabilization by increased thermal and suprathermal pressure. A sensitivity study with respect to the q profile reveals that electromagnetic effects are more pronounced at larger values of q. Further, it is confirmed that turbulence suppression due to rotation becomes less effective in such strongly electromagnetic systems. Electrostatic simplified models may thus perform well in present-day devices, in which high β is often correlated with high rotation, but provide poor extrapolation towards low rotation devices. Implications for ITER and reactor plasmas are discussed.