Response to “Comment on ‘Magnetic geometry and physics of advanced divertors: The X-divertor and the snowflake’ ” [Phys. Plasmas 21, 054701 (2014)]

Relying on coil positions relative to the plasma, the “Comment on ‘Magnetic geometry and physics of advanced divertors: The X-divertor and the snowflake’ ” [Phys. Plasmas 21, 054701 (2014)], emphasizes a criterion for divertor characterization that was critiqued to be ill posed [M. Kotschenreuther et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 102507 (2013)]. We find that no substantive physical differences flow from this criteria. However, using these criteria, the successful NSTX experiment by Ryutov et al. [Phys. Plasmas 21, 054701 (2014)] has the coil configuration of an X-divertor (XD), rather than a snowflake (SF). On completing the divertor index (DI) versus distance graph for this NSTX shot (which had an inexplicably missing region), we find that the DI is like an XD for most of the outboard wetted divertor plate. Further, the “proximity condition,” used to define an SF [M. Kotschenreuther et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 102507 (2013)], does not have a substantive physics basis to override metrics based on flux expansion and line length. Finally, if the criteria of the comment are important, then the results of NSTX-like experiments could have questionable applicability to reactors.