Fast wave current drive experiment on the DIII-D tokamak

Conference · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:5102655

Petty, C C; Pinsker, R I; Chiu, S C; deGrassie, J S; Harvey, R W; Lohr, J; Luce, T C; Mayberry, M J; Prater, R ^[1]; Porkolab, M ^[2]; Baity, F W; Goulding, R H; Hoffman, J D ^[3]; James, R A ^[4]; Kawash,

---

1. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
2. Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
4. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

One method of radio-frequency heating which shows theoretical promise for both heating and current drive in tokamak plasmas is the direct absorption by electrons of the fast Alfven wave (FW). Electrons can directly absorb fast waves via electron Landau damping and transit-time magnetic pumping when the resonance condition {omega} {minus} {kappa}{sub {parallel}e}{upsilon}{sup {parallel}e} = O is satisfied. Since the FW accelerates electrons traveling the same toroidal direction as the wave, plasma current can be generated non-inductively by launching FW which propagate in one toroidal direction. Fast wave current drive (FWCD) is considered an attractive means of sustaining the plasma current in reactor-grade tokamaks due to teh potentially high current drive efficiency achievable and excellent penetration of the wave power to the high temperature plasma core. Ongoing experiments on the DIII-D tokamak are aimed at a demonstration of FWCD in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF). Using frequencies in the ICRF avoids the possibility of mode conversion between the fast and slow wave branches which characterized early tokamak FWCD experiments in the lower hybrid range of frequencies. Previously on DIII-D, efficient direct electron heating by FW was found using symmetric (non-current drive) antenna phasing. However, high FWCD efficiencies are not expected due to the relatively low electron temperatures (compared to a reactor) in DIII-D.

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-89ER51114; AC02-78ET51013; AC02-76CH03073; AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5102655
• Report Number(s): GA-A-20930; CONF-920610-6; ON: DE92016253
• Resource Relation: Conference: 14. international conference on plasma and 19th EPS conference on controlled fusion and plasma physics, Innsbruck (Austria), 29 Jun - 3 Jul 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DOUBLET-3 DEVICE
CURRENT-DRIVE HEATING
ALFVEN WAVES
ANTENNAS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ICR HEATING
LANDAU DAMPING
RF SYSTEMS
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
DAMPING
ELECTRIC HEATING
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
JOULE HEATING
PLASMA HEATING
RESISTANCE HEATING
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
700350* - Plasma Production
Heating
Current Drive
& Interactions- (1992-)