Effects of magnetic field perturbations in the ATF torsatron
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)
The effects of errors in the magnetic fields of tokamaks on the plasma are quite different from those in stellarators. In tokamaks, field errors can cause disruptive locked modes through the non-linear evolution of tearing modes acting on initially small error-induced islands. Scaling predictions for these effects indicate that the critical relative field error which can be tolerated becomes smaller as the tokamak size becomes larger. In stellarators, the effect is more benign, as field errors appear only to cause increased plasma transport in the vicinity of islands. Great care has been taken to minimize magnetic field errors in the most recent generation of stellarator-type magnetic plasma traps. In the past six years, several new and sensitive techniques have been developed to detect and map field errors. These methods all rely on the detection of electrons injected along magnetic field lines. During the commissioning of ATF, flux surfaces were mapped using the fluorescent screen technique. Field errors were discovered and traced to uncompensated dipoles in the helical current feeds. Prior to elimination of these errors, plasma discharges indicated centrally peaked plasma profiles. After correction of the uncompensated dipoles, flux surfaces were mapped a second time, and the island widths were found to be greatly reduced. Field errors were then deliberately introduced using a set of perturbation coils that had been added to ATF, and electron-beam mapping of the flux surfaces showed that islands several centimeters in width could easily be created by these coils. After elimination of the error fields, the measured plasma temperature and density profiles were much broader. The field-perturbation coils were then used to produce magnetic field asymmetries, and the measured plasma profiles were again shown to narrow as a result of islands.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 10191048
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305210-6; ON: DE94000474; TRN: 93:023977
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) workshop on stellarators,Garching (Germany),10-14 May 1993; Other Information: PBD: [1993]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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