Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights May 24, 2010 FY2010 weeks of research operations Base Target: 13 weeks Base Completed: 9.7 weeks ARRA Target: 5 weeks ARRA Completed: 5.0 weeks Plasma Shots: 1630 High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics Conference ---------------------------------------------- Several C-Mod scientists and graduate students attended the High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics Conference last week in Wildwood, NJ. At the meeting were Syun'ichi Shiraiwa, Seung Gyou Baek, Peng Xu, Matt Reinke, Roman Ochoukov, Cornwall Lau, Keigo Arai, Zach Hartwig, Bob Mumgaard, Jim Terry, and Igor Bespamyatnov and Bill Rowan, UT-FRC. Presentations from the conference may be found at: http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/alcator/pubs/HTPD/HTPD_2010.htm Operations ---------- Last Monday the C-Mod OH1 magnet was driven at 60 Hz with approximately 50 Amps of current to verify proper operation of the new and refurbished flux loops. Other in-vessel work included repair of some inner wall tiles, as well as re-installation of inner divertor plates and modules that were removed for the flux loop work. Clean-room work focused on preparations for re-installation of the remaining outer divertor modules. Nearly all components needed for the alternator cooling water upgrade have been installed, and some initial testing has begun. Preparations are being made for commissioning the new system. A new faster, larger, data disk array has been brought on line. This new array will allow C-Mod operation for more that one run week if there are interruptions in our data archive operations. Lower Hybrid System ------------------- The waveguide runs from the klystrons to the jungle gym have been completed. All water loads have been installed on the jungle gym. Installation of the clamps, supports, and conduits needed for the launcher cabling has been completed. The radial drive system for the launcher has been installed, tested, and calibrated. ICRF Systems ------------ The rf breakdown experiments have been completed and FMIT#4 will be reconfigured for plasma operation. Diagnostics ----------- The MSE group has constructed an automated calibration system which is now operational in-vessel. This piece of equipment allows for more extensive calibrations, including a full Stokes vector calibration, which is currently underway. The photo-elastic modulators were removed from the vessel for separate Stokes vector calibration over their entire optical surface and have now been reinstalled. Additionally, the heat shield was removed and examined, showing no degradation from the previous campaign. The shutter was replaced with a new design which has been extensively tested in a vacuum test stand. A prototype circuit of the system that will be used to lock the frequency separation of the C-Mod Polarimeter FIR lasers was successfully tested last week. The analog output from this circuit will also be used to identify sources of vibration induced noise in the polarimeter signals. Work on the PLC controlled gas system for the lasers has been completed, and the gas system has been successfully tested. Travel and Remote Participation ------------------------------- On Friday, Bill Beck, Peter Koert, Orso Meneghini, and Syun'ichi Shiraiwa attended the COMSOL v4.0 seminar held in Newton, MA, to learn about the new capability of version 4.0 and its plasma module. Pat MacGibbon was at our klystron vendor in Palo Alto, CA last week to witness tests of the three new klystrons for the LH system. Peter Beiersdorfer, LLNL, visited MIT last week to discuss collaborations on spectroscopy and atomic physics research with Matt Reinke. Rajesh Maingi, ORNL, participated in the ARIES Town Meeting on "Edge Plasma Physics and Plasma Material Interactions in the Fusion Power Plant Regime" 20-21 May 2010 at UC San Diego. He gave a presentation on "Heat flux measurements and modeling from C-Mod, DIII-D, and NSTX for the FY10 Joint Research Milestone, and implications for power producing devices”. _______________________________________________ Cmod_weekly mailing list Cmod_weekly@lists.psfc.mit.edu http://lists.psfc.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmod_weekly