Alcator C-MOD Weekly Highlights August 18, 1997 The Alcator C-Mod maintenance period continued last week with work on the alternator, DNB, and RF systems. Analysis of data from the last run period continues. All wedges have been taken off the alternator rotor, and the field copper is being removed. The coil cleanup crew is onsite and will begin cleaning the field copper as soon as they can complete the setup of their equipment. Assembly of the DNB beamline in the test lab is complete. The beamline has been supported in a configuration appropriate for installation on C-Mod. Quotes on components for the low capacitance transmission line that will connect the beamline to its power supplies were received, including those for ductwork, insulators and standard transition boxes. Location for the transmission line was determined, and design of the supporting trestles has begun. Development of the PLC interface for the vacuum system continued, and PARAGON screens on vacuum system status are now available. Modifications to the waveform generators used with the arc and mod/reg supplies were completed and tested. We began development of an improved diagnostic system for collection of the thermocouple and secondary emission data required to measure beam footprint, neutralization efficiency, and progress on beam conditioning. System requirements were determined, the data acquisition system design was completed, and appropriate CAMAC modules have been located. A detuned dummy load connected to FMIT#1 has been used to simulate operation when the antenna match to the plasma load is imperfect due to changing plasma conditions. As was expected, the final stage gain is phase dependent. When operating at maximum source power (2 MW), an increase in gain can result in a screen overload fault, and the transmitter trips off temporarily. The transmitter arc detectors (there is another pair of arc detectors located near the antenna) will be tested using the detuned load as well. Further analysis and testing of FMIT#4's Uptegraff power supply has found a failed capacitor in one phase of the supply. Previously the problem was thought to be blown diodes in one of three secondary legs, but modelling the power supply with failed diodes could not reproduce the measurements. When the failed capacitor was included in the model, the model and experimental measurements were in agreement. Analysis of the 40 MHz RF Testing and Conditioning experiments has shown central direct electron heating consistent with excitation of mode converted Ion Berstein waves. The peaked profile has a full-width half-maximum of < 0.2 r/a. The analysis was done with by break-in-slope analysis of the 9 channel grating polychromator ECE diagnostic. The fraction of total power deposited into electrons as determined by this method is <0.25. TORIC simulations indicate that approximately 50% of the power is absorbed directly by ions. On Thursday of last week the vessel was backfilled with hydrogen to complete the Core Thomson Scattering calibration.