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Title: Increased confinement and beta by inductive poloidal current drive in the RFP

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/419957· OSTI ID:419957

Progress in understanding magnetic-fluctuation-induced transport in the reversed field pinch (RFP) has led to the idea of current profile control to reduce fluctuations and transport. With the addition of inductive poloidal current drive in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST), the magnetic fluctuation amplitude is halved, leading to a four- to five-fold increase in the energy confinement time to {tau}{sub E}{approximately}5 ms as a result of both decreased plasma resistance and increased stored thermal energy. The record low fluctuation amplitude coincides with a record high electron temperature of {approximately}600 eV (for MST), and beta {beta} = 2{mu}{sub 0} / B(a){sup 2} increases from 6% to 8% compared with conventional MST RFP plasmas. Other improvements include increased particle confinement and impurity reduction. 19 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-96ER54345
OSTI ID:
419957
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/54345-283; ON: DE97000177; TRN: 97:002198
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Oct 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English