Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights January 29, 2007 C-Mod Program Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting ---------------------------------------------- The Alcator C-Mod Program Advisory Committee Meeting was held on January 24, 25, and 26 last week. On the PAC this year are Rich Groebner (GA, chair), Chuck Kessel (PPPL), Brian Lloyd (UKAEA), Alberto Loarte (EFDA CSU), Dale Meade (PPPL,retired), Craig Petty (GA), Paul Terry (UWisc), Jim Van Dam (UTexas), and Adam Rosenberg (OFES, ex officio). Dale Meade was unable to attend the meeting this year. Following the Welcome and Charge to the PAC given by Miklos Porkolab, Earl Marmar delivered the overview talk. Talks on progress made over the last year and plans for the next were then given by Ron Parker, Brian LaBombard, Martin Greenwald, Bob Granetz, Steve Wukitch, Bruce Lipschultz, Jim Irby, Paul Bonoli, Steve Wolfe, Amanda Hubbard, and Jerry Hughes. These presentations may be found at http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/alcator/pubs/CMOD_PAC_2007/index.html The final session of the PAC meeting, which included initial feedback from the committee, was video-conferenced with OFES in Germantown. Physics ------- Joseph Snipes participated in experiments with the new JET TAE antennas last week. While dedicated run time was not allocated to these experiments, several seconds at the end of the discharges for the main experiment were dedicated to active TAE experiments in limited plasmas with varying elongation and toroidal field. Excellent results were obtained with hundreds of resonances measured, and TAE damping rates were measured to be in the range of 0.5% to 2%. Automatic tracking of the modes was also performed that allowed a given mode to be followed in time. These initial results are in agreement with previous C-Mod results for moderate toroidal mode numbers. A new frequency calibration of the pick-up coils needs to be done to properly determine the toroidal mode numbers in JET. Cryopump -------- The upper chamber cryopump has been installed and successfully leak-checked. We are now proceeding on installation of the cryopump feedthroughs at the C-Top vertical port as well as installation of the cryopump protection hardware. Work on the cell liquid helium and nitrogen transfer lines needed to feed the cryopump is also in progress. Control Systems --------------- The hardwired display board at the front of the C-Mod control room is being replaced with three projection video display screens. Software to drive the displays with both engineering and physics parameters and trends is being developed. Fifteen of the engineering control PCs have been upgraded and new PC to PLC software installed. This new system is networked to a single control server and will be much easier to maintain. In addition, near real-time trending of engineering information can be displayed. Lower Hybrid System ------------------- All five circulators which had exhibited faults at relatively low power, have been refurbished, and are now operational at 250 kW with 0.5 s pulses. All twelve klystrons are now available at full power for operation during the upcoming run campaign. Preparations are being made for system calibrations which will will begin as soon as we pump down. ICRF Systems ------------ Work continued on refurbishment of the fast ferrite tuner. Assembly of the tuner module will begin this week. We continued to reassemble the ICRF antennas and reinstall the D- and E-Port horizontal flanges. The E-Port flange was installed over the weekend and is now leak-tight. Diagnostics ----------- Progress was made in-vessel on alignment of new and old GPI telescopes. Preparations are being made for MSE and CXRS alignments to continue early this week. Components for the Surface Science Station, polarimetry, and bolometry, continue to be produced in the C-Mod shop and by outside vendors. Long Pulse Diagnostic Neutral Beam ---------------------------------- The HV transformer refurbishment is nearly complete. The transformer has passed a 20 kV hi-pot in air and will be backfilled with SF6 and hi-pot tested to 50 kV. The beam duct offset flange has been machined, installed on the F-Port Horizontal flange, and is well aligned to the DNB beamline at the new 7 degree toroidal angle. DoE Quarterly Review -------------------- On Thursday, January 25, a DoE Quarterly Review was held at MIT. At the review were Earl Marmar, Miklos Porkolab, Jim Irby, Steve Scott, PPPL, Bill Rowan, Ron Bravenec, Perry Phillips, all UTexas, and Adam Rosenberg, OFES. Earl Marmar summarized progress on major C-Mod systems, and Bill Rowan discussed the UTexas collaboration. The accompanying quarterly report can be found at: http://www.psfc.mit.edu/cmod/sciprogram/..%5Cquarterly/FY2007_Q1_REPORT.PDF Travel and Visits ----------------- Martin Peng, PPPL, was at MIT last week to attend the PAC meeting and discuss non-inductive current ramp-up experiments. Randy Wilson, PPPL, was also at MIT last week to attend the PAC meeting and discuss lower hybrid system upgrades. Bill Rowan, Perry Phillips and Ron Bravenec, UTexas, were at MIT to attend the PAC meeting. Joseph Snipes visited JET from 1/22/07 to 1/24/07 to participate in experiments with the new JET TAE antennas. Prof. Miklos Porkolab attended the UCLA Winter School on Turbulence, sponsored by the DOE/NSF Science Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics and presented an invited lecture with the title "Experimental Studies of Waves and Turbulence in High Temperature Tokamak Plasmas: A Survey." The lecture included work of a number of co-authors from MIT, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and DIII-D. The school lasted 6 days and was attended by over 100 graduate students from throughout the world. _______________________________________________ Cmod_weekly mailing list Cmod_weekly@lists.psfc.mit.edu http://lists.psfc.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmod_weekly