[en] A stationary equilibrium of a liquid metal flowing past a cylindrical magnetic cavity is presented. The cavity has an azimuthal magnetic field and can also have an axial field. The liquid metal flow can be maintained by a sufficiently high pressure head. The scheme could be used to support a flowing liquid wall for systems producing high heat fluxes. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

[en] Key objectives of the first ten years of ITER operation are the investigation of the physics of burning plasmas and the demonstration of long-pulse ignited plasma technologies. These include studies of plasma confinement and stability, divertor operation, disruption mitigation and control, noninductive current drive, and steady state operation under conditions when the plasma is heated predominantly by alpha particles. The ITER operational plan envisages two and a half years for commissioning and initial operation with hydrogen plasmas at up to 100 MW of auxiliary heating power when initial tests of divertor operation and evaluation of disruption effects will be made. In order to meet the operational and programmatic goals, it will be necessary to make a wide range of plasma measurements. In this article the preliminary operational plan and physics program are presented and the implications for plasma measurements are outlined. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

[en] Key objectives of the first ten years of ITER operation are the investigation of the physics of burning plasmas and the demonstration of long-pulse ignited plasma technologies. These include studies of plasma confinement and stability, divertor operation, disruption mitigation and control, noninductive current drive, and steady state operation under conditions when the plasma is heated predominantly by alpha particles. The ITER operational plan envisages two and a half years for commissioning and initial operation with hydrogen plasmas at up to 100 MW of auxiliary heating power when initial tests of divertor operation and evaluation of disruption effects will be made. In order to meet the operational and programmatic goals, it will be necessary to make a wide range of plasma measurements. In this article the preliminary operational plan and physics program are presented and the implications for plasma measurements are outlined. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

[en] The capability to inject deuterium pellets from the magnetic high field side (HFS) has been added to the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)]. It is observed that pellets injected from the HFS lead to deeper mass deposition than identical pellets injected from the outside midplane, in spite of a factor of 4 lower pellet speed. HFS injected pellets have been used to generate peaked density profile plasmas [peaking factor (n_e(0)/< n_e>) in excess of 3] that develop internal transport barriers when centrally heated with neutral beam injection. The transport barriers are formed in conditions where T_e∼T_i and q(0) is above unity. The peaked density profiles, characteristic of the internal transport barrier, persist for several energy confinement times. The pellets are also used to investigate transport barrier physics and modify plasma edge conditions. Transitions from L- to H-mode have been triggered by pellets, effectively lowering the H-mode threshold power by 2.4 MW. Pellets injected into H-mode plasmas are found to trigger edge localized modes (ELMs). ELMs triggered from the low field side (LFS) outside midplane injected pellets are of significantly longer duration than from HFS injected pellets. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

[en] It is shown that regions of enhanced pressure have been produced in targets with indirect radiation drive in planar and cylindrically convergent geometry through the interaction between the flows caused by target inhomogeneities and the main target drive. Design calculations for National Ignition Facility (NIF) [J. A. Paisner et al., Laser Focus World 30, 75 (1994)] targets with beryllium ablators formed by bonded hemi-shells [D. C. Wilson et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 43, 1667 (1998)] indicate that related behavior produces a seed perturbation in the ablator which can in some cases lead to the suppression of ignition. From simulation and analysis of the NIF problem in the planar geometry analog, a scaling for the perturbation, which should be useful for validation of the behavior with lower energy drive and smaller-scale geometries, is derived. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

[en] Indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion makes use of cavities constructed of high atomic number materials to convert laser power into x-rays for ablatively driving an implosion capsule. Obtaining spatially uniform drive on the capsule requires a careful balancing between the laser absorption region (high drive) and the laser entrance holes (low drive). This balancing is made difficult because of plasma expansion, and the associated movement of the laser absorption region with time. This paper reports the first experimental demonstration of compensation for this motion by using different laser beams at different times, in agreement with modeling. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

[en] In recent ion Bernstein wave (IBW) heating experiments on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [J. R. Wilson. R. E. Bell, S. Bernabei, K. Hill et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 1721 (1998)] a velocity shear layer in the plasma core was obtained. The magnitude of velocity shear was believed to be too small to create an internal transport barrier, because of parasitic edge processes which reduced the power coupled to the core. In this paper we investigate these rf (radio frequency) edge processes by employing a model which includes both coaxial modes and their dissipation in rf plasma sheaths. The coaxial mode (here, an electron plasma wave trapped in the halo plasma between the lower hybrid layer and the vessel wall) can propagate at low poloidal wave numbers. This feature is shown to relate to the observed poloidal phasing dependence of the antenna loading. Results of analytical models and a three-dimensional antenna code are presented. The experimentally observed loading is also nonlinear, being larger at very low powers. This feature is explored using an rf sheath dissipation model. Loading into the coaxial mode is expected to maximize when the density gradient at the lower hybrid layer is steep, preventing efficient mode transformation to the IBW. The role of ponderomotive force in modifying the density profile is also discussed. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics