OVERVIEW OF RFX-mod RESULTS

RFX-mod (R=2m, a=0.457m) is proceeding inits mission to explore RFP confinement in the plasma current range>1MA, to ex-tend the knowledge base on MHD stability active control and to contribute to fusionscience, in particular in the low-magnetic field regime. The main recent results isthe discovery, at high plasma current (I>1 MA), of plasma self-organization in a3d single helical axis equilibrium, with m=1,n=7 helicity [Nature Phys 2009]. Thehelical state has almost conserved magnetic flux surfaces, with strong core electrontransport barriers. Electron temperature Te reaches 1.3keV @1.7MA. Ti is~(0.5-0.7)Te, consistent with collisional ion heating. Magnetic surfaces quality improveswith current. Together with a global overview of the recent results, advances onactive feedback control of tearing modes and RWM will be presented (RFX has asystem of 192 independent feedback coils), as well as, in particular, the progressin understanding density limit and plasma edge physics. At the plasma edge tem-perature barriers are also observed and current density fluctuations are measuredand interpreted as Drift-Alfven vortices, similarly to what happens in Earth magne-tosphere. First wall lithization is under development. The flexibility of the deviceallows for low-current tokamak operation, for both edge turbulence and active MHDstability control studies.