Influence of boronization on operation with high-Z plasma facing components in Alcator C-Mod

We report the results of operation of Alcator C-Mod with all high-Z molybdenum plasma facing component (PFC) surfaces. Without boron-coated PFCs energy confinement was poor (HITER,89 ∼ 1) due to high core molybdenum (nMo/ne ⩽ 0.1%) and radiation. After applying boron coatings, nMo/ne was reduced by a factor of 10–20 with HITER,89 approaching 2. Results of between-discharge boronization, localized at various major radii, point towards important molybdenum source regions being small, outside the divertor, and due to RF-sheath-rectification. Boronization also has a significant effect on the plasma startup phase lowering Zeff, radiation, and lowering the runaway electron damage. The requirement of low-Z coatings over at least a fraction of the Mo PFCs in C-Mod for best performance together with the larger than expected D retention in Mo, give impetus for further high-Z PFC investigations to better predict the performance of un-coated tungsten surfaces in ITER and beyond.