Improved plasma confinement and evidence for a pressure-driven instability from reduced magnetic field errors in the CTX spheromak

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6342910

Fernandez, J C; Wysocki, F J; Jarboe, T R; Barnes, C W; Henins, I; Knox, S O; Marklin, G J

The 0.67 m radius mesh flux conserver (MFC) in CTX was replaced by a solid flux conserver (SFC), resulting in greatly reduced field errors. Decreased spheromak open flux led to vastly improved decaying discharges, including increased global energy confinement times /tau//sub E/ (from 20 to 180 ..mu..s) and corresponding magnetic energy decay times /tau//sub B/sup 2// (from 0.7 to 2 ms). Improved confinement allowed the observation of a pressure-driven instability which ejects plasma from the spheromak interior to the wall. 9 refs., 3 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6342910
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-88-4232; CONF-890302-1; ON: DE89005475
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101 -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
CONFINEMENT
CONFINEMENT TIME
CTX SPHEROMAK
INSTABILITY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PRESSURE GRADIENTS
SPHEROMAK DEVICES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES