Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
			       October 5, 1998


Engineering:

Reassembly of Alcator C-Mod continued last week with the installation of the
mounting plates.  These plates close up the PF pockets and also provide a
platform for the wedge plates that secure the TF arms.  Successful Hi-pots
of the PF coils were made before and after installation of the plates.  The
OH2L coax was also installed.  The coax must be in place several days before
we can install the wedge plates since it has to be retorqued until the
feltmetal and terminal plates take a permanent set.  All lower TF arms
will be ready for installation later this week following a final cleanup and
hi-pot.  A great deal of work was done last week qualifying the new spring
plate packages.  Force-deflection and creep tests were done at room
temperature and while cooled with liquid nitrogen.  We expect to begin
production fabrication of the spring plate packages this week.  Fabrication
of the new spring plate G10 housings is underway.

A new Rogowski coil for measuring toroidal currents flowing in the vacuum
vessel walls was installed around the vessel exterior.  The coil uses
printed circuit board technology to produce a thin, flexible Kapton belt,
which can fit into the very limited space between the vessel exterior
and the PF coils.

We continued the development of the DNB and the DNB diagnostics for C-Mod.
Work continued on the control system for the accelerator supply.  The
vacuum oil dryer system performed as expected during its first full week of
unattended operation and water content of the oil decreased significantly.
The in-vessel layout for DNB diagnostics was completed and mechanical
conflicts between MSE and CXRS were resolved.  Fabrication of the low
capacitance transmission line, transition boxes, and cable tray for the
cell installation continued.


Physics:

The fourteen topical focus groups which have been organizing and prioritizing 
proposed experiments for the upcoming C-Mod campaign reported their results at
a  meeting of the C-Mod Experimental Program Committee this week. After
discussion,  the EPC adopted a plan for run allocations consistent with
constraints on operating time; these allocations are based on broad
programmatic themes and  include small reductions to the run-time requested by
some of the topical groups.  Appropriate combinations of the original focus
groups will now meet to prepare revised experiment lists corresponding to the
allocations.  Mini-proposals will then be written in support
of the high-priority experiments. 


Visits and Travel:

Norton Bretz from PPPL was here last week working on the arrangements
for MSE.  David Mikkelsen also visited from PPPL last week.  He has
been comparing C-Mod data to several transport models.  In general, he has
found that they under-predict C-Mod temperature by 40-50%.  This work will
continue, and we hope be reported on at the DPP meeting in New Orleans.  He
consulted with members of the Alcator team about details of diagnostics,
analysis and data access.