Alcator C-MOD Weekly Highlights May 14, 1996 The spring maintenance period continues. The outer divertor, RF systems, divertor cryopump, and edge Thomson scattering are making good progress. All outer divertor modules have been removed from the vessel and machining and welding of the components have begun. As described in more detail last week, changes to the outer divertor module are being made to increase the shear strength of the outer divertor mother bolts. These bolts provide the major points of attachment for the outer divertor module to the vacuum vessel wall. Ultrasonic testing of the outer divertor tiles has also begun. The divertor cryopump has been put through several complete cooldown cycles, and the PLC/PC hardware and software debugged. The new cryogenic valves for controlling LN2 and LHe to the pump have arrived and are being checked out and readied for installation. The control cabinets for the new RF transmitters have been moved from our setup area to their final location in the power room. The control wiring can now continue. Two new 9" coax runs from the new transmitters have been layed out and support hardware is now being determined. The new switchgear units have been successfully operated remotely and can now be wired to the PLC. Joe Bartolick from PPPL was here last week installing components for the new Edge Thomson Scattering system. The laser table, and beam handling optics are installed. The laser power and cooling water have been hooked up, and the flashlamps made operational. The optics mounted to the igloo are installed except for the final turning mirror which is awaiting welding to the A-port cowl. The HeNe alignment beam has been successfully directed down the entire optical path up to the last mirror position. The polychromator and electronics rack are in position in the cell and cabling is being installed. Preparations are being made for test firing the laser to determine if there is any electrical noise detectable in the ECE system. The laser and the ECE detector electronics occupy the same diagnostic lab. The diborane gas cabinet has been wired up at its new location, and preparations are being made to relocate the associated vent lines. Analysis of data from the last run continues. Large up-down asymmetries in Ar16+ x-ray brightnesses have been observed from the edge of Alcator C-Mod plasmas. Modelling of the observed brightness profiles indicates that the brightness asymmetries can be explained by an asymmetry in the Ar17+ density of a factor of 8, just inside the last closed flux surface. This asymmetry is in the opposite direction from the ion B X grad B drift direction, and is in qualitative agreement with the predictions of neo-classical parallel impurity transport theory. Two of our collaborators, Kevin Fournier (at LLNL and JHU) and Mark May (at JHU) have performed a new calculation of the "cooling rate" of molybdenum. The calculations use the latest atomic physics data and indicate that in the 300-800 eV temperature range the emissivity per Mo ion per electron is significantly higher than that of Post, Jensen, et al. (Atomic Data and Nucl. Tables, Vol. 20 (1977). We plan to compare the new predicted emissivities with profiles measured by bolometry. Jim Irby attended the ITER Progress Meeting on Microwave Diagnostics and the first Reflectometry Working Group meeting, both held at the San Diego Joint Work Site. Ian Hutchinson and Miklos Porkolab were at PPPL last week at an ITER Information Workshop. Paper recently published or accepted for publication include: J A Snipes, A E Hubbard, D T Garnier, S N Golovato, R S Granetz, M Greenwald, I H Hutchinson, J Irby, B LaBombard, E S Marmar, A Niemczewski, P J O'Shea, M Porkolab, P Stek, Y Takase, J L Terry, R Watterson, S M Wolfe, "H-modes on Alcator C-Mod", to be published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, approximately June 1996. J. A. Snipes, R. L. Boivin, C. Christensen, C. Fiore, D. Garnier, J. Goetz, S. N. Golovato, M. Graf, R. S. Granetz, M. Greenwald, A. Hubbard, I. H. Hutchinson, J. Irby, B. LaBombard, E. S. Marmar, A. Niemczewski, P. O'Shea, M. Porkolab, P. Stek, Y. Takase, J. L. Terry, M. Umansky, S. M. Wolfe, Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 3 (1996) 1992.