Alcator C-MOD Weekly Highlights
			Jan 3, 1996


After a two-week maintenance period, Alcator C-Mod will resume operation this
week. The major activities during the maintenance period included final
preparations for boronization, and an upgrade to the EF1 power supply.

The boronization procedures have now been reviewed, and we are ready for
delivery of the diborane by the end of this week.  Security measures for
the power room and cell will be stepped up once the diborane has been
installed in the cell gas cabinet.  Instrumentation and control software
and hardware has been debugged, and we are ready for full system tests with
helium gas substituting for the diborane.  The Chromex spectrograph
diagnostic is being upgraded to provide more views around the torus
so that information about the toroidal symmetry of the boron deposition
can be obtained.

The new transformer for the EF1 power supply has been installed and is
now undergoing tests.  This upgrade will allow higher voltages to be
applied to the EF1 coils with a resulting improvement in plasma control.
Some additional ground fault instrumentation was also installed, since the
new transformer completely decouples the EF1 upper and lower supplies,
which previously shared a common ground.

We continue to work on transmitter 3 and 4 installation.  Power
room layouts are now complete, and some of the new components have
been moved into position. In addition, components from the old EF4
power supplies have been removed from the power room to make room for
the new equipment.  The new dummy load is now ready for installation,
and the 13.8 kV cables from the fuse disconnect to the switch-gear
have been run.

The cryopump prototype assembly has been delayed somewhat by late
delivery of the bellows which form the LHe containment pots.  However,
assembly of the pump is now moving quickly.  The PC/PLC control hardware
and software development is well underway.  This system will monitor pump
temperatures and pressures and control the LN2 and LHe flow to the pump.

H.G. Esser will be arriving this week from Julich to work with us on
the boronization.  He has also volunteered to take moly test samples
exposed to the ECDC discharge back with him for analysis.