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Title: High Harmonic Fast Wave Heating Experiments on NSTX

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1003664

A radio frequency (rf) system has been installed on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) with the aim of heating the plasma and driving plasma current. The system consists of six rf transmitters, a twelve element antenna and associated transmission line components to distribute and couple the power from the transmitters to the antenna elements in a fashion to allow control of the antenna toroidal wavenumber spectrum. To date, power levels up to 3.85 MW have been applied to the NSTX plasmas. The frequency and spectrum of the rf waves has been selected to heat electrons via Landau damping and transit time magnetic pumping. The electron temperature has been observed to increase from 400 to 900 eV with little change in plasma density resulting in a plasma stored energy of 59 kJ , a toroidal beta, βT , =10% and a normalized beta, βn = 2.7.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1003664
Resource Relation:
Conference: 18th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Sorrento, Italy, 20001004, 20001010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English