Plasma Performance Improvement with Lithium-Coated Plasma-Facing Components in NSTX

Lithium as a plasma-facing material has many attractive features, including a reduction in the recycling of hydrogenic species and the potential for withstanding high heat and neutron fluxes in fusion reactors. Recent NSTX experiments have shown, for the first time, significant and recurring benefits of lithium coatings on plasma-facing components (PFC's) to the performance of divertor plasmas in both L- and H- mode confinement regimes heated by high-power neutral beams. They included decreases in the plasma density and inductive flux consumption, and increases in the electron temperature, ion temperature, energy confinement time, and DD neutron rate. Extended periods of MHD quiescence were also achieved, and measurements of the visible emission from the lower divertor showed a reduction in the deuterium, carbon, and oxygen line emission. Other salient results with lithium evaporation included a broadening of the electron temperature profile, and changes in edge density gradients that benefited electron Bernstein wave coupling. There was also a reduction in ELM frequency and amplitude, followed by a period of complete ELM suppression. In general, it was observed that both the best and the average confinement occurred after lithium deposition and that the increase in WMHD occurs mostly through an increase in We. In addition, a liquid lithium divertor (LLD) is being installed on NSTX this year. As the first fully-toroidal liquid metal divertor target, experiments with the LLD can provide insight into the behavior of metallic ITER PFC's should they liquefy during high-power divertor tokamak operations. The NSTX lithium coating and LLD experiments are important near-term steps in demonstrating the potential of liquid lithium as a solution to the first-wall problem for both magnetic and inertial fusion reactors

New electron cyclotron emission diagnostic based upon the electron Bernstein wave

Most magnetically confined plasma devices cannot take advantage of standard Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) diagnostics to measure temperature. They either operate at high density relative to their magnetic field or they do not have sufficient density and temperature to reach the blackbody condition. The standard ECE technique measures the electromagnetic waves emanating from the plasma. Here we propose to measure electron Bernstein waves (EBW) to ascertain the local electron temperature in these plasmas. The optical thickness of EBW is extremely high because it is an electrostatic wave with a large k(subscript i). One can reach the blackbody condition with a plasma density approximately equal to 10(superscript 11) cm(superscript -3) and electron temperature approximately equal to 1 eV. This makes it attractive to most plasma devices. One serious issue with using EBW is the wave accessibility. EBW may be accessible by either direct coupling or mode conversion through an extremely narrow layer (approximately 1-2 mm) in low field devices

Magnetic Diagnostics for the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment

The Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX) is a spherical tokamak with R0 = 0.4m, a = 0.26m, BTF ∼ 3.4kG, IP ∼ 400kA, and pulse length ∼ 0.25s. The focus of LTX is to investigate the novel, low-recycling Lithium Wall operating regime for magnetically confined plasmas. This regime is reached by placing an in-vessel shell conformal to the plasma last closed flux surface. The shell is heated and then coated with liquid lithium. An extensive array of magnetic diagnostics is available to characterize the experiment, including 80 Mirnov coils (single and double-axis, internal and external to the shell), 34 flux loops, 3 Rogowskii coils, and a diamagnetic loop. Diagnostics are specifically located to account for the presence of a secondary conducting surface and engineered to withstand both high temperatures and incidental contact with liquid lithium. The diagnostic set is therefore fabricated from robust materials with heat and lithium resistance and is designed for electrical isolation from the shell and to provide the data required for highly constrained equilibrium reconstructions

Investigations of Low and Moderate Harmonic Fast Wave Physics on CDX-U

Third harmonic hydrogen cyclotron fast wave heating studies are planned in the near term on CDX-U to investigate the potential for bulk ion heating. In preparation for these studies, the available radio-frequency power in CDX-U has been increased to 0.5 MW. The operating frequency of the CDX-U radio-frequency transmitter was lowered to operate in the range of 8-10 MHz, providing access to the ion harmonic range 2* {approx} 4* in hydrogen. A similar regime is accessible for the 30 MHz radio-frequency system on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), at 0.6 Tesla in hydrogen. Preliminary computational studies over the plasma regimes of interest for NSTX and CDX-U indicate the possibility of strong localized absorption on bulk ion species

Electron Density Measurements in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Detached Divertor Region Using Stark Broadening of Deuterium Infrared Paschen Emission Lines

Spatially resolved measurements of deuterium Balmer and Paschen line emission have been performed in the divertor region of the National Spherical Torus Experiment using a commercial 0.5 m Czerny-Turner spectrometer. While the Balmer emission lines, Balmer and Paschen continua in the ultraviolet and visible regions have been extensively used for tokamak divertor plasma temperature and density measurements, the diagnostic potential of infrared Paschen lines has been largely overlooked. We analyze Stark broadening of the lines corresponding to 2-n and 3-m transitions with principle quantum numbers n = 7-12 and m = 10-12 using recent Model Microfield Method calculations (C. Stehle and R. Hutcheon, Astron. Astrophys. Supl. Ser. 140, 93 (1999)). Densities in the range (5-50) x 10{sup 19} m{sup -3} are obtained in the recombining inner divertor plasma in 2-6 MW NBI H-mode discharges. The measured Paschen line profiles show good sensitivity to Stark effects, and low sensitivity to instrumental and Doppler broadening. The lines are situated in the near-infrared wavelength domain, where optical signal extraction schemes for harsh nuclear environments are practically realizable, and where a recombining divertor plasma is optically thin. These properties make them an attractive recombining divertor density diagnostic for a burning plasma experiment

Modification Of The Electron Energy Distribution Function During Lithium Experiments On The National Spherical Torus Experiment

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has recently studied the use of a liquid lithium divertor (LLD). Divertor Langmuir probes have also been installed for making measurements of the local plasma conditions. A non-local probe interpretation method is used to supplement the classical probe interpretation and obtain measurements of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) which show the occurrence of a hot-electron component. Analysis is made of two discharges within a sequence that exhibited changes in plasma fueling efficiency. It is found that the local electron temperature increases and that this increase is most strongly correlated with the energy contained within the hot-electron population. Preliminary interpretative modeling indicates that kinetic effects are likely in the NSTX

Enhanced energy confinement and performance in a low-recycling tokamak,

ABSTRACT Extensive lithium wall coatings and liquid lithium plasma-limiting surfaces reduce recycling, with dramatic improvements in ohmic plasma discharges in the Current Drive eXperimentUpgrade (CDX-U). Global energy confinement times increase by up to 6×. These results exceed confinement scalings such as ITER98P(y,1) by 2-3×, and represent the largest increase in confinement ever observed for an ohmic tokamak plasma

Landsat-7 ETM+ Radiometric Stability and Absolute Calibration

Launched in April 1999, the Landsat-7 ETM+ instrument is in its fourth year of operation. The quality of the acquired calibrated imagery continues to be high, especially with respect to its three most important radiometric performance parameters: reflective band instrument stability to better than ±1%, reflective band absolute calibration to better than ±5%, and thermal band absolute calibration to better than ± 0.6 K. The ETM+ instrument has been the most stable of any of the Landsat instruments, in both the reflective and thermal channels. To date, the best on-board calibration source for the reflective bands has been the Full Aperture Solar Calibrator, which has indicated changes of at most –1.8% to –2.0% (95% C.I.) change per year in the ETM+ gain (band 4). However, this change is believed to be caused by changes in the solar diffuser panel, as opposed to a change in the instrument\u27s gain. This belief is based partially on ground observations, which bound the changes in gain in band 4 at –0.7% to +1.5%. Also, ETM+ stability is indicated by the monitoring of desert targets. These image-based results for four Saharan and Arabian sites, for a collection of 35 scenes over the three years since launch, bound the gain change at –0.7% to +0.5% in band 4. Thermal calibration from ground observations revealed an offset error of +0.31 W/m2 sr um soon after launch. This offset was corrected within the U. S. ground processing system at EROS Data Center on 21-Dec-00, and since then, the band 6 on-board calibration has indicated changes of at most +0.02% to +0.04% (95% C.I.) per year. The latest ground observations have detected no remaining offset error with an RMS error of ± 0.6 K. The stability and absolute calibration of the Landsat-7 ETM+ sensor make it an ideal candidate to be used as a reference source for radiometric cross-calibrating to other land remote sensing satellite systems