Alcator C-Mod Run 1050519 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:298a
Date Filed: 5/20/2002
Title:C-Mod Plasma Startup
First Author:Jim Irby
Session Leader:Jim Irby (shots 1-34)

Operators
Session leader(s):Jim Irby
Physics operator(s):Steve Wolfe
Engineering operator(s):Sam Pierson

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP# 298a EO Pierson PO Wolfe SL Irby

Session Leader Plans
Entered: May 19 2005 08:06:07:303AM
Author: Jim Irby
We will start from the last successful shot from Friday, 5/6. If we get a couple
of good shots we will go to the ICRF 1 MA fiducial and start bringing up the rf.
We will carefully monitor Ti lines, pressures, density control, etc.

Physics Operators Plans
Entered: May 18 2005 11:57:24:210AM
Author: Steve Wolfe
Engineering setup for Thursday, 19 May 2005

Recovery from Vacuum Opening
Nominal MP#298a "C-Mod Startup"

Session leader: J. Irby
Physics operator: S. Wolfe

ECDC overnight in D2, 2e-4 Torr; bake at 60 C.

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

Power systems as on 1050506032

A-coil configuration: normal [+Dtop -Dbot -Jtop +Jbot] and enabled.

Gas Setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar Hybrid DISabled (PG1)
leave B-side upper with whatever Hybrid disabled
fill B-main (B-side Main) with 40 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)


Gate valves open on first shot, possibly closed at some point during the run.

Enable the following gate valves, assuming no vacuum problems:
ECE, VUV, Z-bolo shutters

Necessary diagnostics: Titanium monitoring

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICRF Setup: All transmitters in run on at 8:30
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run plan:
---------
The plan is to contimue the operation that had been terminated on 1050506 in order to remove the LH grill. Of interest will be the level of Ti and the level of D2/H2 fueling from the wall.
The first shot loaded will be copied from 1050506032. 
When and if the discharge approaches a "normal"state, a fidicial shot will be run, e.g. 1050429001. 
ICRF will attempt to re-condition the antennas. 
If we get reproducible shots, J. Terry will scan the VUV.

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: May 19 2005 05:28:21:787PM
Author: Jim Irby
The h/(h+d) was very good today considering the up-to-argon. Very low radiated power on the last two plasmas and h/(h+d) 10% or less. Cleanup is going well.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: May 19 2005 05:32:35:227PM
Author: Steve Wolfe
A difficult but ultimately fairly successful day of vent 
recovery. We ended up with five plasmas, but the last two
were full length and in succession, after a day of one plasma 
followed by of order 10 fizzles and duds. 

Plasmas were
 #2 : 600kA, .29sec
 #11: 700kA, .45sec
 #20: 700kA, 1.4sec
 #32: 800kA, 2.0sec
 #33: 900kA, 1.8sec (with up to 1.7MW of RF and a short H-mode)

The H/D on the successful plasmas was remarkably low, down
to 6% on 20, and around 8-10% on the later shots. Shot #32
had very little fueling, and the density was actually falling
after 1sec. Shot #33 had some fueling, but I think it may 
have been coming from the RF.

For most of the day the wall/dust pumping was extremely fast.
We tried ECDC between shots 7 and 8, and the base pressure 
dropped back to 1e-6 by the time we could get the next shot set 
up. Most of the day the base pressure was below 5e-7. 

I spent a lot of time chasing the pressure around to get out
of dudland and fizzledom, with no real success. I also made very 
small tweaks to the fields, ending up with Br0=-.0005 (started
at -.0007, at one point was as high as -.0002) and IC_EF4U at
-1340 (started at -1325).  There were some late breakdowns
which may have been helped by the field tweaks. Or not.

Data system ran fine all day (no hangs).
Cameras got off to a bad start, but Jim managed to get them
sort of working. Wide1 and JANT views had a trigger timing
problem almost all day, so the plasmas seem to start around 
0.4sec. LH view, once it started working, had the correct timing.
This is especially mysterious since they are all on the same
trigger.  


Session Leader Comments
May 19 2005 09:44:27:310AM1050519002Jim IrbyH/(H+D) at 14%

lots of UFOs on wide 1.

May 19 2005 10:03:59:440AM1050519004Jim Irbyfizzle

some problems with cameras

Physics Operator Comments
May 19 2005 07:43:40:137AMSteve Wolfe
Load from 1050506032
Note that active segment is 3.
Note that in seg3, nl04=5e19, goes negative after 1sec
  pg3has a 60V puff between .7 and 1sec
   ** Eliminate this puff **
Import seg3 (fiducial) from 1050429001 into seg2; leave off
Note in seg1: Br0=-0.0007 T
              IC_EF4U=-1325 A
              RCUR offset=2500 A-m
              pg4=33 msec
Load at 19-May-2005 07:43:14.00
Open tree /home/wolfe/pcs_scratch      -1
Open tree done


May 19 2005 09:18:12:333AM1050519001Steve Wolfe
Shot#1: p0 in INIT 1.4e-7
fizzle. CIII signal looks high, probably too much gas.
pressure is over .045mTorr
EF1L current waveform is delayed rise, gets there in 
the end. We've seen that before; Gary says the fix is
to reset a pot in the control cabinet
hardly any current rise.

Next shot: reduce pg4 to 25ms

May 19 2005 09:40:27:043AM1050519002Steve Wolfe
Shot#2: reduce pg4 to 25ms
short plasma to .285sec, current turns around earlier
H/D is .14, zave is 3-4.
Injection at .216sec

next shot: repeat


May 19 2005 09:45:15:823AM1050519003Steve Wolfe
Shot#3:repeat
dud? gas may now be low? Br0 is low.

next shot: pg4 to 28ms, br0 to -.0005

May 19 2005 10:00:53:113AM1050519004Steve Wolfe
Shot#4: pg4 from 25->28ms, br0 from -.0007 to -.0005
fizzle, late breakdown 10ms, no CIII signal at all

next shot: pg4 to 30ms, ef4 to -1335

May 19 2005 10:16:58:373AM1050519005Steve Wolfe
Shot#5:pg4 to 30ms, ef4 to -1335
dud. Pressure is up to .045, Br and Bz look good
Nothing obvious on the rga. Base is down to 2.8e-7Torr

next shot: raise fill again?

May 19 2005 10:43:35:690AM1050519006Steve Wolfe
Shot#6:pg4 back to 33ms; if this is a dud, reload shot 2
Dud. Reload shot 2. If that's a dud, ecdc

May 19 2005 11:00:32:823AM1050519007Steve Wolfe
Shot#7: Reload shot 2. If that's a dud, ecdc
Dud. 
Try 15 minutes of ecdc in D2, 2e-4Torr

May 19 2005 11:32:56:917AM1050519008Steve Wolfe
Shot#8: Repeat shot 2 after 15minutes ecdc
Base pressure drops to below 2e-6 almost immediately 
after turning off ecdc. Down to 1.0e-6 in check!

fizzle. Breakdown time and levels look ok, except 
the CIII signal is non-existent. No current takeoff at 
all. p0 starts around .04mTorr and rises to .055. 
Br0 still looks too negative to me, around -1mT. 
RGA shows a lot of diborane residue pumping away (on the 
10^-9 scale).

Next shot: repeat and see how the gas situation evolves, 
even though I expect another dud. 

May 19 2005 11:39:51:963AM1050519009Steve Wolfe
Shot#9: repeat and see how the gas situation evolves, 
even though I expect another dud.
base pressure is now down to 4e-7 again. 
fizzle. Late breakdown (10ms), CIII signal is back 
Still no current rise. 

next shot: raise br0 by .5mT

May 19 2005 11:53:04:760AM1050519010Steve Wolfe
Shot#10: raise br0 from -.0007 to -.0002
Fizzle. Still a late breakdown, around 8.5msec
More CIII, a little bit of gas current. 

next shot: ef4 to -1340

May 19 2005 12:12:34:757PM1050519011Steve Wolfe
Shot#11: ef4 to -1340; base pressure down to 2.5e-7
short plasma to .44sec. Rising density after .3sec,
then a shark fin(?) or Marfe.
breakdown is back at ~5msec. 
OH1 crowbarred after the disruption
H/D under 0.1. Lots of dust on JANT and LH views.
Note that Wide1 and JANT still have a trigger timing issue

next shot: I should adjust the gas, but since I'm not sure
which way to go, I'll leave it alone.

May 19 2005 12:28:40:737PM1050519012Steve Wolfe
Shot#12: repeat.
dud. Base pressure was 4e-7 or so, I think. 

Just repeat one more time, then do something

May 19 2005 12:39:47:223PM1050519013Steve Wolfe
Shot#13: repeat.
Another dud. 

Next shot: drop the gas a little (?!)

May 19 2005 12:51:26:757PM1050519014Steve Wolfe
Shot#14: pg4 from 25 to 23msec (I know, normally would go
the other way; try this anyhow).
Base pressure is now 2.7e-7
Another dud. 

Ok, try raising the gas.

May 19 2005 01:04:52:630PM1050519015Steve Wolfe
Shot#15: pg4 to 30ms
2.2e-7 in check. 
dud. 
Try even more gas

May 19 2005 01:22:03:030PM1050519016Steve Wolfe
Shot#16: pg4 to 35ms
fizzle. Breakdown slightly late, around 7ms
pressure at bd ~.055mTorr; hardly any current, 
again no CIII light, but plenty of Zmeter and Dalpha.
This may be trying to tell me something about where 
the breakdown is happening.
Br0 seems to be drifting up a little. Resist the urge
to lower it again.

next shot: repeat


May 19 2005 01:31:01:573PM1050519017Steve Wolfe
Shot#17: repeat, see if it gets better or worse left to itself.
fizzle. Almost identical. 

next shot: Still more gas, since it seemed to help?

May 19 2005 01:45:24:277PM1050519018Steve Wolfe
Shot#18: Pg4 to 38msec. I thinks that's the highest I've ever
run it. 
Fizzle. Looks the same. Bd around 6msec.

Next shot: Back to 30msec on pg4, see if it takes off or duds
out.

May 19 2005 01:58:30:933PM1050519019Steve Wolfe
Shot#19: Pg4 to 30msec, as if it matters what I do.
Fizzle, got a little gas current this time. 
More CIII light too. Shot 15 was a dud with this gas 
puff.

OK, drop the gas some more.

May 19 2005 02:11:31:480PM1050519020Steve Wolfe
Shot#20: Pg4 to 27msec
Plasma to 1.4sec, almost made it to rampdown.
I claim it's because Yijun lost faith and shut off the RF!
Density still rising throughout the shot, reaches
1.36e20 before the final fin.
breakdown was earlier, around 5ms again. 

next shot: Raise Ip to 800kA in seg3 (why not?)

May 19 2005 02:21:58:060PM1050519021Steve Wolfe
Shot#21: Ip to 800kA, leave startup alone
It'll probably take another 9 shots to get another one to 
go anyway. 

fizzle. At least it wasn't a dud. Got a little current
too. Next shot: repeat.

May 19 2005 02:36:59:803PM1050519022Steve Wolfe
Shot#22: repeat
That one was a dud though. Oh well!
Just run them off, it will go when it's ready.

May 19 2005 02:47:51:977PM1050519023Steve Wolfe
Shot#23: repeat
And a repeat dud! Why did 21 flash?
Why ask why?

Let's get crazy: puff some argon

May 19 2005 03:00:59:990PM1050519024Steve Wolfe
Shot#24: put in 50ms of argon at -0.5sec
Still a dud, it didn't help; can't see the difference
on the ratiomatic either.

Next shot: raise the fill again

May 19 2005 03:12:14:020PM1050519025Steve Wolfe
Shot#25:pg4 back to 30ms, argon off in seg1
fizzle. We've been here before.
breakdown at 5.9ms, no current rise to speak of.

next: repeat, see if it gets better.
When it doesn't, drop the gas back down


May 19 2005 03:23:38:280PM1050519026Steve Wolfe
Shot#26:repeat
another dud. Ok, raise it some more, then come down.


May 19 2005 03:37:02:353PM1050519027Steve Wolfe
Shot#27: pg4 to 33msec
fizzle, maybe a little gas current. 

one more like this, then drop the fill

May 19 2005 03:49:00:653PM1050519028Steve Wolfe
Shot#28:repeat
fizzle. A little better

next: drop pg4 1ms

May 19 2005 04:03:03:223PM1050519029Steve Wolfe
Shot#29: pg4 to 32msec
fizzle, late breakdown~9msec but more current

pg4 to 31msec

May 19 2005 04:14:41:913PM1050519030Steve Wolfe
Shot#30: pg4 to 31msec
fizzle. Breakdown has definitely gotten later
br0 to -.0005

May 19 2005 04:27:31:140PM1050519031Steve Wolfe
Shot#31: br0 to -.0005 from -.0002
fizzle. Stronger, almost made it; bd earlier too.
next shot: drop pg4 back to 30ms


May 19 2005 04:46:53:613PM1050519032Steve Wolfe
Shot#32:  drop pg4 back to 30ms from 31
plasma full length at 800kA
density actually falls, from a max value of .66e20
H/D ~0.08; not bad for this density.

next shot: raise Ip to 900kA

May 19 2005 04:56:26:773PM1050519033Steve Wolfe
Shot#33:raise Ip to 900kA
plasma to 1.8sec. Density rises
some that time. Rf from E and J
quick h-mode at 0.87sec

next shot: go for 1MA (why not?)

May 19 2005 05:05:22:763PM1050519034Steve Wolfe
Shot#34:raise Ip to 1MA
fizzle. 
That's all for today.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
109:09:32:730AMPlasmaOk
209:28:36:377AMPlasmaOk
309:42:02:370AMPlasmaOk
409:55:06:430AMPlasmaOk
510:08:05:253AMPlasmaOk
610:42:05:833AMPlasmaOk
710:57:52:540AMPlasmaOk
811:24:14:990AMPlasmaOk
911:36:46:387AMPlasmaOk
1011:49:24:407AMPlasmaOk
1112:02:13:537PMPlasmaOk
1212:24:06:053PMPlasmaOk
1312:36:41:447PMPlasmaOk
1412:49:23:260PMPlasmaOk
1501:02:05:900PMPlasmaOk
1601:15:34:270PMPlasmaOk
1701:28:25:790PMPlasmaOk
1801:40:59:773PMPlasmaOk
1901:53:39:833PMPlasmaOk
2002:06:19:177PMPlasmaOk
2102:19:04:157PMPlasmaOk
2202:31:32:913PMPlasmaOk
2302:44:03:773PMPlasmaOk
2402:56:39:553PMPlasmaOk
2503:09:12:070PMPlasmaOk
2603:21:54:540PMPlasmaOk
2703:34:24:413PMPlasmaOk
2803:46:59:827PMPlasmaOk
2903:59:38:550PMPlasmaOk
3004:12:10:727PMPlasmaOk
3104:24:53:590PMPlasmaOk
3204:38:07:313PMPlasmaOk
3304:50:38:680PMPlasmaOk
3405:03:42:260PMPlasmaOk