Session KP01 - Poster Session III.
POSTER session, Tuesday afternoon, March 23
Exhibit Hall, GWCC
This poster will discuss the status of the configuration design for the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX), and related physics issues. The NCSX design incorporates the following key physics features: 1) Optimized drift trajectories and low neoclassical toroidal viscosity in a low aspect ratio configuration via quasi-axisymmetry; 2) Good ballooning stability properties produced by strong n=0 components of triangularity and ellipticity; 3) Stabilization of the external kink mode in the absence of a conducting wall produced by externally generated shear and appropriate three-dimensional shaping; 4) Neoclassical suppression of magnetic islands (monotonically increasing iota); 5) Configurational robustness produced by a substantial externally generated transform. The trade-offs required for incorporating all of these features in a single configuration will be discussed, and the most recent optimized designs incorporating the features will be described. The impact of the constraints associated with retrofitting PBX to produce such a device will also be discussed.