Recent progress on divertor operations in EAST

Abstract The first systematic assessment of divertor performance was made in the EAST superconducting tokamak for both single null (SN) and double-null (DN) divertor configurations under Ohmic and L-mode plasma conditions. Particle and heat fluxes are higher at outboard divertor targets than those at inboard divertor targets for both SN and DN. However, the DN divertor configuration exhibits a much stronger in-out asymmetry favoring outer divertors. DN operation also leads to an up-down asymmetry with higher particle fluxes to the divertors with their ∇ B drift toward the X-point. Reversing toroidal field direction shows a strong influence on the divertor asymmetries. The plasma exhibits a large amplitude broadband turbulence in the outer divertors for both SN and DN, which is significantly reduced in the inner divertors, especially for DN. This coincides with a broad divertor SOL profile on the outboard side. Initial comparisons are also made with SOLPS-B2/EIRENE modeling.