Session CO3 - NSTX and Other ST.
ORAL session, Monday afternoon, November 15
Room 204/205, SCC
A new method recently developed on HIT-II, referred to as transient CHI, has unambiguously demonstrated the presence of a robust closed flux equilibrium and central transformer volt-seconds savings when coupled to induction, showing that the CHI produced plasmas are not only compatible with conventionally produced inductive plasmas but that they also improve the performance of these inductive plasmas [R.Raman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 075005 (2003)]. In this method the plasma is rapidly grown through the use of an appropriately sized capacitor bank. The initial static magnetic flux is chosen such that this rapidly expanding plasma has a tendency to detach from the lower divertor electrodes. Rapidly reducing the injector current during this phase eases the detachment process, which results in the production of a robust closed field line equilibrium. Results from these experiments on NSTX will be reported. DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-76CH03073 and DE-FG03-99ER54519 supports this work.