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Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights

Publication ,  Journal Article
Menard, JE; Allain, JP; Battaglia, DJ; Bedoya, F; Bell, RE; Belova, E; Berkery, JW; Boyer, MD; Crocker, N; Diallo, A; Ebrahimi, F; Ferraro, N ...
Published in: Nuclear Fusion
June 20, 2017

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has undergone a major upgrade, and the NSTX Upgrade (NSTX-U) Project was completed in the summer of 2015. NSTX-U first plasma was subsequently achieved, diagnostic and control systems have been commissioned, the H-mode accessed, magnetic error fields identified and mitigated, and the first physics research campaign carried out. During ten run weeks of operation, NSTX-U surpassed NSTX record pulse-durations and toroidal fields (TF), and high-performance ∼1 MA H-mode plasmas comparable to the best of NSTX have been sustained near and slightly above the n = 1 no-wall stability limit and with H-mode confinement multiplier H98y,2 above 1. Transport and turbulence studies in L-mode plasmas have identified the coexistence of at least two ion-gyro-scale turbulent micro-instabilities near the same radial location but propagating in opposite (i.e. ion and electron diamagnetic) directions. These modes have the characteristics of ion-temperature gradient and micro-tearing modes, respectively, and the role of these modes in contributing to thermal transport is under active investigation. The new second more tangential neutral beam injection was observed to significantly modify the stability of two types of Alfven eigenmodes. Improvements in offline disruption forecasting were made in the areas of identification of rotating MHD modes and other macroscopic instabilities using the disruption event characterization and forecasting code. Lastly, the materials analysis and particle probe was utilized on NSTX-U for the first time and enabled assessments of the correlation between boronized wall conditions and plasma performance. These and other highlights from the first run campaign of NSTX-U are described.

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Published In

Nuclear Fusion

DOI

EISSN

1741-4326

ISSN

0029-5515

Publication Date

June 20, 2017

Volume

57

Issue

10

Related Subject Headings

  • Fluids & Plasmas
  • 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics
 

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Menard, J. E., Allain, J. P., Battaglia, D. J., Bedoya, F., Bell, R. E., Belova, E., … Zweben, S. J. (2017). Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights. Nuclear Fusion, 57(10). https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/aa600a
Menard, J. E., J. P. Allain, D. J. Battaglia, F. Bedoya, R. E. Bell, E. Belova, J. W. Berkery, et al. “Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights.” Nuclear Fusion 57, no. 10 (June 20, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/aa600a.
Menard JE, Allain JP, Battaglia DJ, Bedoya F, Bell RE, Belova E, et al. Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights. Nuclear Fusion. 2017 Jun 20;57(10).
Menard, J. E., et al. “Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights.” Nuclear Fusion, vol. 57, no. 10, June 2017. Scopus, doi:10.1088/1741-4326/aa600a.
Menard JE, Allain JP, Battaglia DJ, Bedoya F, Bell RE, Belova E, Berkery JW, Boyer MD, Crocker N, Diallo A, Ebrahimi F, Ferraro N, Fredrickson E, Frerichs H, Gerhardt S, Gorelenkov N, Guttenfelder W, Heidbrink W, Kaita R, Kaye SM, Kriete DM, Kubota S, Leblanc BP, Liu D, Lunsford R, Mueller D, Myers CE, Ono M, Park JK, Podesta M, Raman R, Reinke M, Ren Y, Sabbagh SA, Schmitz O, Scotti F, Sechrest Y, Skinner CH, Smith DR, Soukhanovskii V, Stoltzfus-Dueck T, Yuh H, Wang Z, Waters I, Ahn JW, Andre R, Barchfeld R, Beiersdorfer P, Bertelli N, Bhattacharjee A, Brennan D, Buttery R, Capece A, Canal G, Canik J, Chang CS, Darrow D, Delgado-Aparicio L, Domier C, Ethier S, Evans T, Ferron J, Finkenthal M, Fonck R, Gan K, Gates D, Goumiri I, Gray T, Hosea J, Humphreys D, Jarboe T, Jardin S, Jaworski MA, Koel B, Kolemen E, Ku S, La Haye RJ, Levinton F, Luhmann N, Maingi R, Maqueda R, McKee G, Meier E, Myra J, Perkins R, Poli F, Rhodes T, Riquezes J, Rowley C, Russell D, Schuster E, Stratton B, Stutman D, Taylor G, Tritz K, Wang W, Wirth B, Zweben SJ. Overview of NSTX Upgrade initial results and modelling highlights. Nuclear Fusion. 2017 Jun 20;57(10).
Journal cover image

Published In

Nuclear Fusion

DOI

EISSN

1741-4326

ISSN

0029-5515

Publication Date

June 20, 2017

Volume

57

Issue

10

Related Subject Headings

  • Fluids & Plasmas
  • 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics