Effects of poloidally asymmetric sources in the scrape-off layer

Significant in-outboard and up-down symmetries of power load and plasma parameters at the divertor plates have been observed in several tokamaks. In this paper we study the problem considering the idealized situation of two divertor chambers connected by straight magnetic field lines, under the assumption that the plates are electrically floating. The asymmetries in scrape-off layer plasma parameters, which would appear due to (1) different recycling-like sources, or (2) different energy sinks, near the two targets, are computed using a 1D 1-fluid finite element code for the simulation of plasma dynamics along magnetic field lines. (orig.)