Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights December 4, 2006 FY2007 weeks of research operations: tentative target: 15 weeks Completed: 0 weeks Physics ------- The 2007 Alcator C-Mod Ideas Forum will be held from December 13 to 15, 2006. The purpose of the Forum is to solicit proposals for experiments on the C-Mod tokamak for the upcoming run campaign, which is scheduled to begin in February 2007. The Forum is open to all interested parties, including current collaborators and potential future collaborators. We actively solicit proposals from the entire fusion community. -- Important deadlines Proposal title submission: December 6, 2006 (close-of-business) Electronic submission of final presentations: December 12, 2006, 12 noon Please email submissions to: ideasforum@psfc.mit.edu Last Wednesday a general 'Edge' coordination meeting was held to discuss ideas people are considering for the Ideas Forum. A wide range of topics were covered from the cryopump to ELMs. An instrument to inject boron particles (dust) into the plasma SOL is being developed. We have succeeded in injecting boron particles with radii between 40 and 125 microns through 3m of capillary tubing into vacuum using a helium puff at pressures of 5 psi and above. Laser light scattered from the dust was captured with a digital camera, as we plan to do in the tokamak. Operations ---------- Work continued on the new bolometer box which is now approximately 80% complete. The welding of the edge CXRS system is complete, as is welding of the the new F-Port flange. Routine maintenance of the alternator continues. Upgrades have begun to the ICRF PC to PLC interface software and hardware. Upgrades of all the other PLC engineering systems were completed earlier in this up-to-air period. The lower hybrid launcher has been prepared for re-installation on C-Port. Tungsten Tiles -------------- We expect delivery of the edge tungsten lamella tiles early this week at which point installation of tile modules on the outer divertor plates will begin. These tiles required special contouring as they are located at open openings. All other tiles have been prepared for installation. Cryopump -------- Welding of all the studs required to support the new cryopump components has been completed. All studs that could interfere with cryopump installation have now been removed. All shim plates have been successfully fitted up in-vessel, and a preliminary fit-up of the cryopump itself has been completed. The in-vessel feedline components are in-house and have been successfully leakchecked, and work has begun on the vacuum feedthroughs. Lower Hybrid System ------------------- Work continued on the new klystron test stand control system, and simulation of the pulse response of its high voltage power supply. We also continued testing of the twelve klystrons currently being used plus a possible spare klystron. ICRF Systems ------------ We continued work on the rf control racks, the #1 and #2 step start systems, and the control and interlock system for the Fast Ferrite Real-time Tuner. Travel and Visits ----------------- Stewart Zweben, PPPL, came to MIT last week with a new in-vessel telescope, built at PPPL, that will be part of a new Gas-Puff-Imaging (GPI) system. It will provide a new view of the edge/SOL region near the bottom of the plasma. He also worked on other issues related to the installation of this new system. David Mikkelsen, PPPL, was at MIT last week analyzing electron temperature profiles, and discussing ways to optimize the measurement of local electron temperature gradient scale lengths. Suitable experiments will be proposed at the C-Mod Ideas Forum in two weeks. _______________________________________________ Cmod_weekly mailing list Cmod_weekly@lists.psfc.mit.edu http://lists.psfc.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmod_weekly