Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights October 17, 2011 FY2012 weeks of research operations Target: TBD Completed: 0 Plasma Shots: 0 Operations ---------- The alternator was successfully brought up to full speed last week in preparation for C-Mod operation. Except for installation of the new ARRA funded rotated antenna, nearly all in-vessel work including calibrations has been completed. Last week we installed the rf feed horn, waveguides, and brackets for the new scrape off layer reflectometer, covered bare metal components with black passivated shim stock to reduce reflections, did a final calibration of the new CECE system, finished installation of the inner wall limiter tile modules, installed upgraded EF1 protection tiles around the inner wall periscope fibers, installed viewing dumps, installed thermocouples, and generally made sure all new installation were properly secured to the vessel walls. ICRF Systems ------------ The rotated antenna and shims have been assembled on the test stand. The assembly has been measured and compared with the model and found to be within tolerance. Installation of the antenna in-vessel will begin this week. Installation will be followed by careful documentation of the antenna location and final adjustment of its position. Lower Hybrid Systems -------------------- Testing of the transmitter protection system (TPS) control boards continues. The SBIR vendor has provided a firmware update which has fixed inter-chip communication issues. The TPS logger parsing utility was written. A display window shows the time history of 72 digital signals on a single display. Re-wiring inside of klystron cart 1 for the new TPS is complete. Collector over temperature system (COTS) and solenoid wiring for cart 1 are also complete. All obsolete wiring has been removed from cart 3 and only solenoid connector interlock wiring remains in cart 2. All old TPS chassis have been removed from the equipment racks. New fiber optics has been run from the active control system to cart 1. Equipment rack re-wiring has begun for carts 1 and 3. Garnet ferrite material for developing high power fast ferrite tuner (FFT) stubs was received from the manufacturer. Diagnostics ----------- Installation and calibration of the Motional Stark Effect diagnostic has been completed, and the diagnostic is ready for operation in the upcoming campaign. Remote Participation, Travel, and Visitors ------------------------------------------ Jerry Hughes, John Rice, and Amanda Hubbard attended the 13th International Workshop on H-mode Physics and Transport Barriers in Oxford, UK (October 10-12). Jerry gave an invited talk on the "Important issues in confinement transition physics, pedestal dynamics and pedestal structure: the ultimate keys to accessing and sustaining high confinement". This talk served as an overview of recent research into the formation and evolution of the edge pedestals in tokamaks, and set the stage for an open discussion of physics issues in this area. John presented a poster on "Ohmic energy confinement saturation and toroidal rotation reversal in Alcator C-Mod plasmas". Amanda presented a poster on "Threshold conditions for transitions to I-mode and H-mode with unfavourable ion drift direction". She also attended a meeting of the Internation Advisory Committee for the workshop. Jim Irby attended the 15th Laser Aided Plasma Diagnostics Meeting on Jeju Island, South Korea last week. He gave an invited talk on the "FIR Polarimetry Diagnostic for the C-Mod Tokamak." Will Bergerson, UCLA, who is now full time at MIT as part of the MIT/UCLA polarimetry collaboration, also attended the meeting, and presented a poster of his previous work on MST. _______________________________________________ Cmod_weekly mailing list Cmod_weekly@lists.psfc.mit.edu http://lists.psfc.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmod_weekly