Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
			   October 17, 2005


FY2006 weeks of research operations
Planned: TBD
Completed: 0 weeks


Operations
----------

A 120C bake and ECDC continued most of last week.  The machine was
brought back to room temperature on Friday.  Vacuum conditions are now
as good as before the vent except for the hydrogen level which usually
requires plasma operation to reduce to an acceptable level (low H/D
ratio during ICRF discharges).

The alternator was brought back into service by Friday of last week
after operational checks of the backup systems were complete.


Physics Research
----------------

Final preparations are being made for the upcoming APS-DPP meeting in
Denver. C-Mod team members are scheduled to present 4 invited talks
(Lipschultz, Granetz, Hughes, Zweben), and 43 contributed oral and
poster presentations.


Long Pulse DNB
--------------

Work continues on a new interlock system for the DNB.  Interferometer,
Z-Meter, optical pyrometer, thermocouple, plasma current, and
pressure gauge data will be used to interlock the DNB and prevent
damage to the inner vessel wall during plasma or beam-into-gas
operation.

The DNB has been brought back online and is reliably operating at 50
kV and 6.5A.


ICRF Systems
------------

Work continued preparing ICRF systems for plasma operation.  Extensive
modeling of the J-Port antenna without the Faraday screen continued
and comparisons of the model with the measured data are being made.
Work in the high yard also continued.  A faulted transformer that was
part of the vacuum bottle closing circuit is being replaced, and the
in-rush current to the charging supply reduced.


Lower Hybrid System
-------------------

Work continued last week on the lower hybrid controls and protection
systems. Conditioning pulses of all twelve klystrons into dummy loads
produced as much as 1.5 MW of lower hybrid power for 0.5 s.

Bob Childs and Jim Irby worked with our vendor last week to better
qualify the nickel plating process for the stainless steel lower
hybrid couplers.  Several plating tests were performed including a
test with a wider plating anode.  Eddy current and XRF measurements of
the samples indicate adequate plating for the brazing operation.


Travel and Visits
-----------------

Miklos Porkolab attended the Fusion Power Associates meeting in
Washington, D.C. on October 11 and 12.
_______________________________________________
Cmod_weekly mailing list
Cmod_weekly@lists.psfc.mit.edu
http://lists.psfc.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmod_weekly