Recycling measurements in the Texas Experimental Tokamak

Recycling was investigated as a function of density, plasma current, and toroidal field in the Texas Experimental Tokamak, an ohmically heated, edge-fueled device with a full aperture poloidal limiter. Estimates for the recycling contribution to the plasma particle inventory were inferred from a particle accounting which employed measurements of the number of ionization events in the plasma and in the scrape-off layer, the total number of electrons in the plasma, and the neutral gas influx from the gas feed. Isotopic changeover experiments were used to further characterize recycling and to derive the contribution to the plasma particle inventory from the neutrals held both in the wall bulk and on the wall surface. A model was used to estimate the number of neutrals trapped in the wall as well as to examine the interactions of the major plasma participants in recycling - ions, fast neutrals, and slow neutrals.