High Flux FRC Facility for the Stability, Confinement and ITER Divertor Studies
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Aerospace and Energetics Research Program. Redmond Plasma Physics Lab.
The TCS (Translation, Confinement, & Sustainment) program was begun on 7 August, 1996 to renew basic studies of the Field Reversed Configuration (FRC). The program made use of the old LSX (Large s Experiment) device, which was constructed at STI during the period from 1986 to 1990, but only operated for one year due to a DOE decision at the time to focus exclusively on the tokamak configuration. LSX was transferred to the University of Washington in 1992 and modified (LSX/mod) to perform Tokamak Refueling by Accelerated Plasmoids (TRAP) experiments. The TRAP program was funded from 7 August, 1992 until 6 August, 1996, but was utilized for an additional year while TCS was being constructed. During the first TCS funding period TCS was completed and initial experiments were begun. A large multi-megawatt RF power supply was built by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for use with a Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) system, and LANL has been a continuing participant in our experimental program. A smaller prototype facility, called the Star Thrust Experiment (STX) was also built and operated in this period, partly with NASA funding, before TCS came on-line. A final report for this construction period was submitted in September 2000. A first renewal period (2.5 years) provided operating funds for the period between July 7, 2000 and January 6, 2003. A great deal of progress was made in understanding the use of RMF to both form and sustain FRCs during this period. The principal result of the experimental program was the formation of quasi steady-state (as long as RMF power was available) FRCs with densities in the 1-3x1019 m-3 range. However, the plasma temperature (Te or Ti) was limited to sub-25 eV, except transiently during start-up, by the rapid accumulation of impurities. This is not surprising since TCS was only designed to demonstrate RMF flux build-up and was not provided with either fueling capabilities or modern vacuum conditioning technology. (The unplanned for long time steady-state operation was due entirely to recycling.) TCS employed a multi-section quartz vacuum vessel with greased “O”-ring seals. A final report for this second funding period was submitted in May of 2003.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-96ER54376
- OSTI ID:
- 1121123
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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