Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
                  October 31, 2011


FY2012 weeks of research operations
Target: TBD
Completed: 0
Plasma Shots: 0


DoE Quarterly Review
--------------------

A DoE C-Mod quarterly review (FY2011, Q4) was held by video-conference
on Thursday, Oct. 27. Attendees included: Mark Foster, Jim Van Dam,
Steve Eckstrand and John Mandrekas, FES; Randy Wilson, PPPL; Bill Rowan,
UTx; Earl Marmar, Jerry Hughes, Amanda Hubbard, Steve Wukitch, Ian
Hutchinson, and Martin Greenwald, MIT. Viewgraphs from the presentations
can be viewed at

http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/alcator/pubs/Q_Reviews/Q_rev_Oct_2011/Q-rev_10-27-11.pdf. 


Congressional Visit
-------------------

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island visited the PSFC and
toured the Alcator C-Mod facility last week. The Senator has legislative
interest in clean energy and environmental issues and is a member of the
Senate budget committee.


Research
--------

Zach Hartwig, Ian Faust, and Dennis Whyte have examined two issues
affecting operation of the Hard X-ray (HXR) Camera. First, a number of
scattering studies have been made in an attempt to determine the origin
of hard x-rays coming from chords viewing the last closed flux
surface. No mechanism has been found to account for this anomaly thus
far, prompting further study. Second, a full neutronics and shielding
study has been done for the HXR camera, which cannot operate at high
neutron rates due to neutron-induced gammas overwhelming the
detectors/electronics. It was determined that it should be possible to
increase shielding enough to reduce the gamma counts by about a factor
of 5, although this change may not be sufficient to enable successful
operation of the HXR camera during high performance ICRF-heated
discharges including I-Mode.


Operations
----------

In preparation for operation, we have begun to check out engineering
systems to ensure that trend data is being stored by the data
system. Systems which are particular important at pump-down, and are now
operational, include torus vacuum, vessel heater, ECDC, and cryogenics.

Continuing visits by several engineers and scientists from the ITER
project began last week to start installation of equipment in the cell
for the ITER grounding experiment on Alcator C-Mod.  This project has
involved close collaboration with many C-Mod staff in order to provide
access to magnetics signals, data acquisition hardware and software,
fibreoptic communications, and general mechanical and machine shop
support.  C-Mod will be the first fusion facility to test the common
bonding grounding scheme that is being planned for ITER.

Mercurial, an open source code management tool, is being used by our
data system group for management of shared and inter-shot data analysis
codes.  Once it is tested by a preliminary set of users, a class on its
use will be presented.


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

With installation of the Faraday screens and protection tiles,
construction and installation of the ARRA funded rotated antenna was
completed last week. CMM measurements indicated proper placement of the
antenna.  Preparations are being made for S-Parameter tests of the rf
behavior of the antenna.

The FMIT#3 driver crowbar ignitron has been replaced.  More test data is
being taken to ensure that it is performing as expected.


Lower Hybrid Systems
--------------------

The lower hybrid launcher position readout electronics have been
calibrated.  Mechanical stops for the launcher range of motion will be
set this week for the campaign period.

Termination of cabling in the klystron carts for the TPS upgrade
continued last week.

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