Assessment of vertical stability for negative triangularity pilot plants

Negative triangularity (NT) tokamak configurations may be more susceptible to magneto-hydrodynamic instability, posing challenges for recent reactor designs centered around their favorable properties, such as improved confinement and operation free of edge-localized modes. In this work, we assess the vertical stability of plasmas with NT shaping and develop potential reactor solutions. When coupled with a conformal wall, NT equilibria are confirmed to be less vertically stable than equivalent positive triangularity (PT) configurations. Unlike PT, their vertical stability is degraded at higher poloidal beta. Furthermore, improvements in vertical stability at low aspect ratio do not translate to the NT geometry. NT equilibria are stabilized in PT vacuum vessels due to the increased proximity of the plasma and the wall on the outboard side, but this scenario is found to be undesirable due to reduced vertical gaps which give less spatial margin for control recovery. Instead, we demonstrate that informed positioning of passively conducting plates can lead to improved vertical stability in NT configurations on par with stability metrics expected in PT scenarios. An optimal setup for passive plates in highly elongated NT devices is presented, where plates on the outboard side of the device reduce vertical instability growth rates to 16% of their baseline value. For lower target elongations, integration of passive stabilizers with divertor concepts can lead to significant improvements in vertical stability. Plates on the inboard side of the device are also uniquely enabled in NT geometries, providing opportunity for spatial separation of vertical stability coils and passive stabilizers.