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Ion cyclotron range of frequency heating on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10169582· OSTI ID:10169582
The complete ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating system for the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), consisting of four antennas and six generators designed to deliver 12.5 MW to the TFTR plasma, has now been installed. Recently a series of experiments has been conducted to explore the effect of ICRF heating on the performance of low recycling, Supershot plasmas in minority and non-resonant electron heating regimes. The addition of up to 7.4 MW of ICRF power to full size (R {approximately} 2.6 m, a {approximately} 0.95 m), helium-3 minority, deuterium Supershots heated with up to 30 MW of deuterium neutral beam injection has resulted in a significant increase in core electron temperature ({delta}T{sub e}=3--4 key). Simulations of equivalent deuterium-tritium (D-T) Supershots predict that such ICRF heating should result in an increase in {beta}{sub alpha}(O) {approximately} 30%. Direct electron heating has been observed and has been found to be in agreement with theory. ICRF heating has also been coupled to neutral beam heated plasmas fueled by frozen deuterium pellets. In addition ICRF heated energetic ion tails have been used to simulate fusion alpha particles in high recycling plasmas. Up to 11.4 MW of ICRF heating has been coupled into a hydrogen minority, high recycling helium plasma and the first observation of the toroidal Alfven eigenmode (TAE) instability driven by the energetic proton tail has been made in this regime.
Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Plasma Physics Lab.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH03073
OSTI ID:
10169582
Report Number(s):
PPPL--2917; ON: DE93016721
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English