Theoretical and experimental studies of runaway electrons in the TEXTOR tokamak

Theoretical and experimental studies of runaway electrons in tokamaks and their mitigations, particularly the recent studies performed by a group of the Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf in collaboration with the Institute of Energy and Climate Research of the Research Centre (Forschungszentrum) of Juelich are reviewed. The main topics focus on (i) runaway generation mechanisms, (ii) runaway orbits in equilibrium plasma, (iii) transport in stochastic magnetic fields, (iv) diagnostics and investigations of transport of runaway electron and their losses in low density discharges (v) runaway electrons during plasma disruptions, and (vi) runaway mitigation methods. The development of runaway diagnostics enables the measurement of runaway electrons in both the centre and edge of the plasma. The diagnostics provide an absolute runaway energy resolved measurement, the radial decay length of runaway electrons and, the structure and dynamics of runaway electron beams. The new mechanism of runaway electron formation during plasma disruptions is discussed.