PLASMA WALL PARTICLE BALANCE IN TORE SUPRA

A comprehensive study of the particle balance between the carbon wall and the plasma is presented. One finds that the effective particle content of the wall which governs the plasma equilibrium density departs from the deposited number of particles. This effect is dominant for the fully desaturated wall. A scaling law of the plasma density in terms of the wall effective particle content has been obtained. Moreover, the experimental data allows to estimate the plasma particle confinement time. Values ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 s are found depending on the density. An analytical functional dependence of the particle confinement time is obtained.