ALBERT

Notes: Ion temperature profiles with a time resolution of 2–5 ms have been measured on the Princeton Beta Experiment tokamak (PBX) by charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) and a neutral particle charge-exchange analyzer (NPA). The sightlines of both diagnostics crossed the trajectory of a near-perpendicular heating beam, which enhanced the local neutral density (∝ signal strength) and provided spatial resolution. The time resolution of these two independent techniques is sufficient to see sawtooth oscillations and other magneto- hydrodynamic activity. Effects of these phenomena on the toroidal rotation velocity profile, vφ(r), are clearly observed by CXRS. For example, a sharp drop in the central vφ occurs at the sawtooth crash, followed by a linear rise during the quiescent phase. The NPA results are compared with those from CXRS.

Notes: Data from an E(parallel)B charge exchange neutral analyzer (CENA), which views down the axis of a neutral beamline through an aperture in the target chamber calorimeter of the TFTR neutral beam test facility, exhibit two curious effects. First, there is a turn-on transient lasting tens of milliseconds having a magnitude up to three times that of the steady state level. Second, there is a 720 Hz, up to 20% peak-to-peak fluctuation persisting the entire pulse duration. The turn-on transient occurs as the neutralizer/ion source system reaches a new pressure equilibrium following the effective ion source gas throughput reduction by particle removal as ion beam. Widths of the transient are a function of the gas throughput into the ion source, decreasing as the gas supply rate is reduced. Heating of the neutralizer gas by the beam is assumed responsible, with gas temperature increasing as gas supply rate is decreased. At low gas supply rates, the transient is primarily due to dynamic changes in the neutralizer line density and/or beam species composition. Light emission from the drift duct corroborate the CENA data. At high gas supply rates, dynamic changes in component divergence and/or spatial profiles of the source plasma are necessary to explain the observations. The 720 Hz fluctuation is attributed to a 3% peak-to-peak ripple of 720 Hz on the arc power supply amplified by the quadratic relationship between beam divergence and beam current. Tight collimation by CENA apertures cause it to accept a very small part of the ion source's velocity space, producing a signal linearly proportional to beam divergence. Estimated fluctuations in the peak power density delivered to the plasma under these conditions are a modest 3%–8% peak to peak. The effects of both phenomena on the injected neutral beam can be ameliorated by careful operation of the ion sources.

Notes: Energy flow within TFTR neutral beamlines is measured with a waterflow calorimetry system capable of simultaneously measuring the energy deposited within four heating beamlines (three ion sources each), or of measuring the energy deposited in a separate neutral beam test stand. Of the energy extracted from the ion source on the well-instrumented test stand, 99.5±3.5% can be accounted for. When the ion deflection magnet is energized, however, 6.5% of the extracted energy is lost. This loss is attributed to a spray of devious particles onto unmonitored surfaces. A 30% discrepancy is also observed between energy measurements on the internal beamline calorimeter and energy measurements on a calorimeter located in the test stand target chamber. Particle reflection from the flat plate calorimeter in the target chamber, which the incident beam strikes at a near-grazing angle of 12°, is the primary loss of this energy. A slight improvement in energy accountability is observed as the beam pulse length is increased. This improvement is attributed to systematic error in the sensitivity of the energy measurement to small fluctuations in the supply water temperature. An overall accuracy of 15% is estimated for the total power injected into TFTR. Contributions to this error are uncertainties in the beam neutralization efficiency, reionization and beam scrape-off in the drift duct, and fluctuations in the temperature of the supply water.

Notes: Results are given from the first comprehensive and complementary measurements using the final production U.S. Common Long Pulse Ion Sources mounted on both the TFTR neutral beam test beamline and the TFTR neutral beam injection system, with actual tokamak experimental conditions, power systems, controls, and operating methods. The set of diagnostics included water calorimetry, thermocouples, vacuum ionization gauges, photodiodes, neutron, gamma-ray, and charged particle spectroscopy, optical multichannel analysis, charge exchange spectroscopy, Rutherford backscatter spectroscopy, and implantation/secondary ion mass spectroscopy. These systems were used to perform complementary measurements of neutral beam species, impurities, spatial divergence, energy dispersion, pressure, and reionization. The measurements were performed either in the neutralizer region, where the beam contained both ions and neutrals, or in the region of the output neutral beam. The average of the neutral particle ratios in the range from 80 to 114 keV is D0[E]:D0[E/2]:D0[E/3]=53(5):27(4):20(4), where the quantities in parentheses are the average experimental uncertainties.The corresponding neutral power ratio is P0[E]:P0[E/2]:P0[E/3]=72(9):19(3):9(2). The half widths (1/e) in the horizontal plane for the full-, half-, and third-energy components were 0.26°, 0.34°, and 0.42°, respectively. The dispersions of the full-, half-, and third-energy components were 1.20 keV, 2.35 keV, and 2.26 keV, respectively. The carbon impurity concentration in a 80 keV D0 beam was not greater than 2×10−4 per D0 beam particle, and exhibited an apparent acceleration state of C+. The oxygen impurity concentration was less than 5×10−4 per D0 beam particle, and exhibited an apparent acceleration state of O+. A variety of vacuum conditions were observed depending on the operating conditions. Typically, pressures in the transition ducts were in the range from 0.3 to 0.7×10−5 Torr at the beginning of injection pulses, and reionized power losses were in the range from 0.75% to 1.5% of incident power. At the end of injection pulses, pressures in the transition ducts were in the range from 0.6 to 2×10−5 Torr and reionized power losses were in the range from 2% to 6% of incident power. This work describes generic results, new apparatus, and advances in measurement techniques for the optimization of tokamak neutral beam heating operations and the analysis of neutral beam heated plasmas.

Notes: Using the fast ion diagnostic experiment technique, a neutral probe beam (NPB) can be aimed to inject tangent to a magnetic surface. The resultant ion orbit shifts, due to conservation of canonical toroidal angular momentum, can be measured with a multi-sight-line charge exchange analyzer to yield direct measurements of radial magnetic flux profiles, current-density profiles, the radial position of the magnetic axis, flux surface inner and outer edges, q profiles, and central-q time dependencies. An extensive error analysis was performed on previous PDX q measurements in circular plasmas and the resulting estimated contributions of various systematic effects are discussed. Preliminary results of fast ion orbit shift measurements at early times in indented PBX-M plasmas are given. Methods for increasing the absolute experimental precision of similar measurements in progress on PBX-M are discussed.

Notes: The ion source of the TFTR diagnostic neutral beam utilizes a magnetic cusp bucket from a PLT source modified with an internal rf antenna in place of filaments. The species mix of the beam has been measured after the neutralizer as a function of several parameters in two ways: spectroscopically and by an electrostatic charge exchange analyzer. Source and neutralizer gas feeds (both hydrogen) were varied. Some measurements were made with the bending magnet alternately on and off to obtain neutralizer efficiency for each component. Accelerator current was varied, at fixed acceleration voltage and gas feed rate, by varying rf power to the antenna. Relative beam divergence during this scan was monitored by both diagnostics, and an absolute divergence was obtained from a spectroscopic profile scan.

Notes: The utility of charge exchange neutral particle analyzers for studying energetic ion distributions in high-temperature plasmas has been demonstrated in a variety of tokamak experiments. Power deposition profiles have been estimated in the Princeton large torus (PLT) from particle measurements as a function of energy and angle during heating in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) and extensive studies of this heating mode are planned for the upcoming operational period in the tokamak fusion test reactor (TFTR). Unlike the horizontally scanning analyzer on PLT, the TFTR system consists of vertical sightlines intersecting a poloidal cross section of the plasma. A bounce-averaged Fokker–Planck program, which includes a quasilinear operator to calculate ICRF-generated energetic ions, is used to simulate the charge exchange flux expected during fundamental hydrogen heating. These sightlines also cross the trajectory of a diagnostic neutral beam (DNB), and it may be possible to observe the fast ion tail during 3He minority heating, if the DNB is operated in helium for double charge exchange neutralization.

Notes: During tangential injection of neutral beams into low-density tokamak plasmas with β〉1%, instabilities are observed that degrade the confinement of beam ions. Neutron, charge-exchange, and diamagnetic loop measurements are examined in order to identify the mechanism or mechanisms responsible for the beam-ion transport. The data suggest a resonant interaction between the instabilities and the parallel energetic beam ions. Evidence for some nonresonant transport also exists.

Notes: The highly indented plasmas of the PBX-M tokamak experiment [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research (IAEA, Vienna, 1989), Vol. 1, p. 97] have reached plasma regimes of both high volume-averaged beta (βt), and high-beta poloidal (βp), and show evidence of the suppression of external surface modes by the passive stabilizing system. Values of βt up to 4.0 I/aB (% MA/m T) with Ti(0)≈4 keV have been obtained. A magnetohydrodynamic analysis of plasmas with βp=2.0 indicates that these plasmas are near the threshold of the second stability regime. A value of βt of 6.8% has been reached with Ti(0)〉5 keV and an indentation of 28%. Control of plasma shape is accomplished with a feedback system that uses a moment expansion about a single equilibrium and is augmented by time-dependent waveforms to redefine plasma shape. Diagnostics to measure the safety factor q have been developed and used to make accurate measurements of q(r) and to verify changes made in q(0).

Notes: Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity within three zones (core, half-radius, and edge) of TFTR [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research 1986 (IAEA, Vienna, 1987), Vol. 1, p. 51] tokamak plasmas are discussed. Near the core of the plasma column, sawteeth are often observed. Two types of sawteeth are studied in detail; one with complete, and the other with incomplete, magnetic reconnection. Their characteristics are determined by the shape of the q profile. Near the half-radius the m/n=3/2 and 2/1 resistive ballooning modes are found to correlate with a beta collapse. The pressure and the pressure gradient at the mode rational surface are found to play an important role in stability. MHD activity is also studied at the plasma edge during limiter H modes. The edge localized modes (ELM's) are found to have a precursor mode with a frequency between 50–200 kHz and a mode number m/n=1/0. The mode does not show a ballooning structure. While these instabilities have been studied on many other machines, on TFTR the studies have been extended to high pressure (plasma pressure greater than 4×105 Pa) and low collisionality [vi@B|(a/2)〈0.002, ve*(a/2)〈0.01].