Alcator C-Mod Run 1040405 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:371
Date Filed:11/14/2003
Title:2 MA Operation on Alcator C-Mod
First Author:Jim Irby
Session Leader:Robert Granetz (shots 1-16)

Operators
Session leader(s):Robert Granetz
Physics operator(s):Steve Wolfe
Engineering operator(s):Bill Cochran

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP 371: 2MA Operation at 8T/Granetz/Irby/Wolfe/Cochran/Byford/Parkin

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:04:227PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Run summary for run 1040405 (Monday):

MP 371 -- 2 MA operation at 8 T

Session leader: R. Granetz/J. Irby
Physics operator: S. Wolfe

Summary: Not much progress made today either. We had a full-length shot at
1.2 MA and 8 T, but all attempts at 1.4 MA disrupted, most likely
due to radiation from molybdenum and/or moly injections. We also
lost a lot of time dealing with breaker/crowbar problems. The RF
worked well, with 4.5 MW of power, but we didn't get a chance to
test whether it was responsible for the large amounts of moly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run Plan: Start the physics run with a repeat of 1040331001 (1.05 MA, 5.5
T, Prf=4 MW) to confirm that TF instrumentation is all working.
When ready, load shot 1040331006 (1.05 MA, 8.0 T) from last week.
(Set PLC TF limit at 235 kA and TF start at t=-1.5 s). Raise Ip
in 0.2 MA increments, while also raising the A-coil current and
the PLC OH/EF limits appropriately. (Session leaders will
specify the desired A-coil current for each shot.) We want RF
heating in order to help with OH flux budget, but if it
introduces lots of impurities, we may want to rethink this.

Monitor:
(1) locked mode diagnostics
(2) halo currents and Ih*Bt product on disruptions
(3) TF, OH, and EF instrumentation

If locked modes appear, we have the option of raising the plasma
density, in addition to the A-coil current, depending on how
successful the RF is at heating the plasma.

If it is feasible to shorten the flattop, we should do it in
order to reduce magnet heating and increase the rep rate.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shot 09 -- Plasma. 1 MA, 8 T, full length, Prf=4.0-2.0 MW. First good
shot of the miniproposal.

Next shot: go to 1.2 MA

Shot 10 -- Plasma. Good shot. 1.2 MA, 8 T, full length, Prf= ~3 MW.
About 0.5-0.7 keV of heating on the GPC. A-coil current is
1500 A (programmed for 2000 A in PCS).

Next shot: go to 1.4 MA; raise A-coil current by 500 A

Shot 11 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.11 s. I_halo_L=110 kA, I_halo_U=50
kA. 1.4 MA, 7.9 T. There are a number of moly injections which
undoubtedly caused the disruption. (Some can be seen on the
video.) No locked mode. Prf=4.5 MW, nice waveform.

Next shot: increase inboard gap by 5 mm.

Shot 14 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.06 s. I_halo_L=140 kA, I_halo_U=50
kA. 1.4 MA, 7.9 T. Looks the same as shot 11. No locked mode.
Prf=4.5 MW.

Next shot: try turning off the RF, on the hunch that it might be
producing impurity injections. Also raise the density a little.

Shot 15 -- Plasma, but disrupted very early.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:49:770PM
Author: Steve Wolfe
Physics Operator Summary for Monday 5-APR-2004

MP#371: 2MA operation
SL: Granetz/Irby
PO: Wolfe
EO: Cochran, Byford, Parkin

Engineering Setup:
------------------

ECDC overnight on Sunday (D2), stopping 2 hours before the run.

Run begins at 09:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power systems the same as 1040331001 (1.05 MA, 5.4 T, lower X-point)
Power systems may need to be tested after the 13.8 kV power failure.

A-coils should be configured as on 1040331001 (+Dtop -Dbot -Jtop +Jbot), 3kA,
600V, enabled.

Gas setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar Hybrid enabled (PG1)
leave B-side upper with 15 psi He3 Hybrid disabled (PG2)
fill C-side with 30 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)

Disable NINJA

Enable the following gate valves, assuming no vacuum problems:
ECE, VUV, DNB

Necessary diagnostics:
ECE (set for 8 tesla), TCI, halo current diagnostics, TF scanner and OH coax
resistance and thermocouple instrumentation, Chromex He monitor

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RF Setup: All four transmitters in RUN-ON by 08:00, all at 80 MHz

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run Plan:

1) Start with a repeat of 1040331001 (1.05 MA, 5.4 T, Prf=4 MW) to confirm
that TF instrumentation is all working, and to determine if additional
boronization recovery is necessary.

2) When ready, load shot 1040331006 (1.05 MA, 8.0 T).
(Set PLC TF limit at 235 kA and TF start at t=-1.5 s).
Enable B-side upper for He3 puff; set pg2 pulse to 10msec
Confirm/refine 8 Tesla startup

3) Raise Ip in 0.2 MA increments to 2MA, while also raising the A-coil current
and the PLC OH/EF limits appropriately. (Session leaders will specify the
desired A-coil current for each shot.) We want RF heating in order to help
with OH flux budget, but if it introduces lots of impurities, we may want
to rethink this. Limited variation of He3 puff to optimize heating may be
attempted; we probably do not want to run H-modes unless they are very
steady EDA's, so power should be kept below the L-H threshold.

Monitor:
(1) locked mode diagnostics
(2) halo currents and Ih*Bt product on disruptions
(3) TF, OH, and EF instrumentation

If locked modes appear, we have the option of raising the plasma
density, in addition to the A-coil current, depending on how
successful the RF is at heating the plasma.

If it is feasible to shorten the flattop, we should do it in
order to reduce magnet heating and increase the rep rate.

Results:
-------

No progress toward 2MA was made today. The highest current we got to was
1.45MA, and all of those disrupted with radiation or injection problems. By
the end of the day the RF was staying on at the 4.5MW level pretty well, but
the Prad was also high and for the last shots we tried turning it off for
shot#15. Unfortunately, the gas turned on too hard and it disrupted before
the rf would have come on; the last shot was a fizzle, so we did not get a
chance to see how an ohmic shot would have done.

The run was plagued by power supply (and alternator) problems at the 8T level.
Bill found that several devices in cabinet 6 were getting low gate drive, and
changed the driver board, but this did not fix all of the problems. We also
had (apparently spurious) IOC indications which caused crowbars and breaker
trips. On one shot the alternator DC breaker tripped, which eventually led to
a crowbar from low line voltage fault. Shots# 7, 9, 10, had tf faults before
the end of the plasma. Shots #11 and 14 had disrupions followed by power
supply faults; the IOC on shot 14 came after the end of the tf pulse.

Mo radiation was high on all RF shots, and may have been high even in the
ohmic phase. It is not clear that the boronization is doing any good for
Prad. It did seem to have affected the startup however. Shot 4, 1MA at 5.4T,
had a long eda at 130kJ with rather poor RF; shot 5, with better but still not
constant RF got to 160kJ before the first H->L. We did not get a good fiducial
with which to judge the quality of the boronzation, but the Prad foil seemed
to be going up to the RF power. We may have a broken tile someplace that is
acting as a Mo source. We tried increasing the inner gap to decrease
interaction with the limiter (shot 14) but this did not seem to help at all.

The 8T shots, starting with #7, all had the seg1 ef1 currents dropped by 150A
to -5850A to compensate for the tf half turns (I_tf=200kA at t=0). I also ran
with reduced gas puff (down to 11msec) for all the successful startups. After
we got runaways on shot 15 I raised this and got a fizzle. Startup seemed much
less robust at 8T than on 1040331. The gas evolution following breakdown
showed a strong rise early in the day, then began to pump out after shot 9 or
so.

Scorecard
----------

Tests 3
Duds 0
Fizzles 3
plasma 10
====== ==
Total 16

Session Leader Comments
Apr 5 2004 08:17:31:380AMRobert GranetzMP 371 -- 2 MA operation at 8 T

Session leader: R. Granetz/J. Irby
Physics operator: S. Wolfe

Run Plan: Start the physics run with a repeat of 1040331001 (1.05 MA, 5.5
T, Prf=4 MW) to confirm that TF instrumentation is all working.
When ready, load shot 1040331006 (1.05 MA, 8.0 T) from last week.
(Set PLC TF limit at 235 kA and TF start at t=-1.5 s). Raise Ip
in 0.2 MA increments, while also raising the A-coil current and
the PLC OH/EF limits appropriately. (Session leaders will
specify the desired A-coil current for each shot.) We want RF
heating in order to help with OH flux budget, but if it
introduces lots of impurities, we may want to rethink this.
Apr 5 2004 12:08:14:953PM1040405009Robert GranetzShot 09 -- Plasma. 1 MA, 8 T, full length, Prf=4.0-2.0 MW. First good
shot of the miniproposal.

Next shot: go to 1.2 MA
Apr 5 2004 12:41:35:803PM1040405010Robert GranetzShot 10 -- Plasma. Good shot. 1.2 MA, 8 T, full length, Prf= ~3 MW.
About 0.5-0.7 keV of heating on the GPC. A-coil current is
1500 A (programmed for 2000 A in PCS).

Next shot: go to 1.4 MA; raise A-coil current by 500 A
Apr 5 2004 01:08:00:813PM1040405011Robert GranetzShot 11 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.11 s. I_halo_L=110 kA, I_halo_U=50
kA. 1.4 MA, 7.9 T. There are a number of moly injections which
undoubtedly caused the disruption. (Some can be seen on the
video.) No locked mode. Prf=4.5 MW, nice waveform.

Next shot: increase inboard gap by 5 mm.
Apr 5 2004 04:08:59:823PM1040405014Robert GranetzShot 14 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.06 s. I_halo_L=140 kA, I_halo_U=50
kA. 1.4 MA, 7.9 T. Looks the same as shot 11. No locked mode.
Prf=4.5 MW.

Next shot: try turning off the RF, on the hunch that it might be
producing impurity injections. Also raise the density a little.

Physics Operator Comments
Apr 5 2004 07:00:03:590AMSteve WolfeSetting up pcs for 1040405
Load from 1040331001 - 1MA 5.4T fiducial-like
We'll run this until we're ready to go to 8T, then load
1040331006 and raise current from there.
Load at 5-Apr-2004 06:59:52.00
Open tree /home/wolfe/pcs_scratch -1
Open tree done
Apr 5 2004 09:04:16:843AM1040405001Steve WolfeShot#1: Low power PLC power system test.
Power systems ok. Magnetics data didn't come through.
Tom's looking into it.
Apr 5 2004 09:22:23:793AM1040405002Steve WolfeShot#2: fizzle

next shot: raise Br0 by .5mT, decrease pg4
Apr 5 2004 09:34:56:843AM1040405003Steve WolfeShot#3: raise Br0 by .5mT to .0005, decrease pg4 from 15->13ms
plasma full length.
H-mode at .618, rf is pretty ratty.

next shot: repeat
Apr 5 2004 09:49:37:087AM1040405004Steve WolfeShot#4: repeat
plasma full length, longer H-mode
RF still having trouble, only D is on full pulse.

next shot:put in a back porch on TF
Apr 5 2004 10:05:14:907AM1040405005Steve WolfeShot#5: repeat with a .75 sec back porch on TF
(checking on a high tf scanner reading)

plasma full length, short H-mode.

next shot: go on up to 8T (1040331006)
Apr 5 2004 10:23:59:217AM1040405006Steve WolfeShot#6: go on up to 8T- Import seg2 from 1040331006,
copy tf trace into seg1, enable pg2 (b-side upper) and increase pg2 to 10msec
touch wires 11,13,15 to get rid of timestamp warning.

fizzle, gas came up. Looks similar to shot#2.

next shot: drop pg4, drop ef1's by 150A
Apr 5 2004 11:05:59:970AM1040405007Steve WolfeShot#7: drop pg4 to 11msec, drop ef1's by 150A to -5850
plasma disrupted 1.2 sec -- tf crowbarred before the disruption, around 1.05sc
crowbars on ef1l as well at 1.068, tf came first at 1.063; then all the other pf's later at 1.2.

Lots of fuse inspections before the next pulse
Apr 5 2004 11:51:41:930AM1040405008Steve WolfeShot#8: tf plc test 50kA

next shot: repeat 1MA, try to keep the power supply on this time.
Apr 5 2004 12:11:11:883PM1040405009Steve WolfeShot#9: repeat 1MA, try to keep the power supply on this time.
plasma full length, tf breakers pulled after the shot.
TF started to rampdown at 1.37sec

next shot: go to 1.2MA
Apr 5 2004 12:32:38:460PM1040405010Steve WolfeShot#10: go to 1.2MA, extend RF pulse to 1.5sec
plasma full length, tf breakers pulled again.

next shot: 1.4MA, drop tf to 220kA (7.9 T), increase acoil current
Apr 5 2004 01:05:51:323PM1040405011Steve WolfeShot#11:1.4MA (program 1.45), drop tf to 220kA (7.9 T), increase acoil current to 2500A

plasma disrupted at 1.11sec; looks like a series of injections
Looks like some interaction on inner wall, although gap is 1cm

next shot: increase clearin by 5mm
Apr 5 2004 02:04:45:900PM1040405011Steve WolfeThere will be a delay of about 1 Hour while the engineers set up a test on
one of the tf power supplies.
Apr 5 2004 02:48:22:420PM1040405011Steve WolfeThere will be a further nalf-hour delay while the engineers
replave several gate drive boards in the TF supply.
Apr 5 2004 03:30:02:890PM1040405012Steve WolfeShot#12: increase clearin by 5mm, rcur by 2.5mm; flatten zxu (.02 to .04 at EOF)
NOTE: Alternator dropping rotation back to 1703 from 1718rpm.
Shot 12 will be a tf test at 50kA.

50kA test ok.
next shot: reload shot#3 from today for a 5.4T plasma
Apr 5 2004 03:44:18:270PM1040405013Steve WolfeShot#13: reload shot#3 from today for a 5.4T plasma, just to see.

plasma full length, lots of little H-modes, almost lost
it vertically in late rampdown. No TF or alternator problems.

next shot: Back to 8T, 1.4MA
Apr 5 2004 04:05:01:350PM1040405014Steve WolfeShot#14: reload shot#12, programmed for increase clearin by 5mm, rcur by 2.5mm; flatten zxu (.02 to .04 at EOF)

plasma disrupted at 1.07sec, big injections/radiation.

next shot: repeat with RF off.
Apr 5 2004 04:35:25:820PM1040405015Steve WolfeShot#15: repeat with RF off, oh supply limits raised to -33kA each.
raise nl04 to 1.0e20
disrupted at .55 ; tci feedback seems to have broken.
also runaways.

next shot: decrease rate of rise of nl04.
Apr 5 2004 04:55:22:363PM1040405016Steve WolfeShot#16: decrease rate of rise of nl04. increase pg4 to 14msec
Also turn off He3 puff.
fizzle. Raised the gas too much.

END OF RUN

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:59:21:447AMTestOkPower system low power test
209:15:54:470AMPlasmaOk
309:28:36:617AMPlasmaOk
409:42:03:030AMPlasmaOk
509:56:45:440AMPlasmaOk
610:15:38:843AMPlasmaOk
710:47:52:270AMPlasmaBadtf fault
811:49:02:113AMTestOktf 50ka plc test
912:01:48:837PMPlasmaOk
1012:27:35:280PMPlasmaOk
1112:51:40:007PMPlasmaBadtf fault
1203:26:34:320PMTestOk50 KA TF test
1303:36:50:307PMPlasmaOk
1403:52:02:347PMPlasmaBadtf fault
1504:28:02:760PMPlasmaOk
1604:52:28:873PMPlasmaOk