Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights October 06, 2003 Preparations continued for plasma operation last week. Work continued on lower hybrid and ICRF systems. Re-commissioning of the alternator has begun. New APS Fellow -------------- The American Physical Society has elected Amanda Hubbard for Fellowship in the Society, upon the recommendation of the Division of Plasma Physics. This is a great honor, as election is limited to only one half of one percent of the membership. It is a recognition by her peers of her outstanding contributions to physics. The citation on Amanda Hubbard's Fellowship Certificate will read: "For significant contributions to the understanding of the plasma edge pedestal formation and of the transition to an improved confinement regime in magnetic fusion confinement devices." Operations ---------- We continued checking out data, cooling, and power systems in preparation for plasma operation. The new TMX supply and control system which will provide approximately twice as much current for the non-axisymmetric control coils is ready for power tests. The 120C bake of the vessel was completed with very good results on Monday while ECDC cleaning of the vessel walls continued throughout the week. The machine has been cooled down to near operating levels to check cryogenic control systems and to cooldown the machine structure. Diagnostic systems including TCI, PCI, and Thomson Scattering, are being aligned and brought back on-line, as is the data system. On Thursday a high vibration level measured by one of the alternator bearing sensors kept us from reaching full speed. After running at lower speeds for several hours and after continued warm up, the alternator was brought to full operating speed on Friday evening. The vibration level on the bearing was still slightly higher than during the last run campaign, but did not exceed the trip threshold. We are consulting with GE to determine if any re-alignment might be required. ICRF Systems ------------ After consultation with Chris Brunkhorst, PPPL, FMIT#3 and #4 were successfully tuned to 50 MHz last week. All ICRF systems should be ready for plasma operation this week. Vacuum conditioning of the antennas will begin today. Lower Hybrid Systems -------------------- Following the addition of baffles, acid pumps and heating elements to the etching process last week, the ceramic bricks have now been totally removed from two of the Lower Hybrid couplers, and about 20% have been removed from the remaining two. Etching will continue over the weekend. Our brazing vendor has received eight 3-channel titanium prototypes for further brazing tests. Doug Loesser, PPPL, traveled to the vendor 10/1-3 to deliver the prototypes and discuss the new tests. Previous tests had suggested a strong preference for the brazing alloy Gapasil, which is repelled by the ceramic rather than bonding to un-metallized areas. Its wetting of the titanium is also controlled by Stop-Off, a brazing mask, which should considerably reduce subsequent cleanup time. The prototype brazes are now in progress. All etching and the prototype brazes are expected to be completed by 10/8, and an inspection of the results and a final design review preparatory to coupler rebrazing have been scheduled for 10/10 at PPPL. The alignment holes of both Forward Wave Guides have been reamed, and pins have been installed, A successful trial fit of the end flanges has been performed. Preparations for final assembly and welding are under way and will be carried out following approval of the final assembly procedure. Travel and Visits ----------------- Matt Sampsell, UT-FRC, arrived on 10/3 to continue the preparations for BES and CXRS operation during the coming campaign. Alan Lynn, UT-FRC, will arrive on 10/4 to prepare the FRCECE diagnostic. Bill Rowan, UT-FRC, completed the installation of optics and spectrometer in preparation for the beam experiments that will begin with the arrival next week of Marco Valisa, RFX. The new CXRS detector is now operating under control of MDSPlus. Manfred Bitter, Ken Hill, and Doug LaBrie, PPPL, were at MIT last week re-installing the NSTX soft X-ray spectrometer with an improved detector. Amanda Hubbard and John Rice were in San Diega last week at the ITPA meeting. Amanda attended the Pedestal sessions while John attended the Transport and ITB sessions. Professor Thomas Klinger, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, visited the PSFC and gave a seminar on W7AS results and plans for W7-X. He also had discussions with the VTF group and with several C-Mod physicists on the physics of HDH-mode on W7-AS compared with the EDA H-mode on C-Mod.