Prompt Loss of Energetic Ions during Early Neutral Beam Injection in the National Spherical Torus Experiment
Early neutral-beam injection is used in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) to heat the electrons and slow current penetration which keeps q(0) elevated to avoid deleterious MHD activity and at the same time reduces Ohmic flux consumption, all of which aids long-pulse operation. However, the low plasma current (I{sub p} {approx} 0.5 MA) and electron density (n{sub e} {approx} 1 x 10{sup 13} cm{sup -3}) attending early injection lead to elevated orbit and shine through losses. The inherent orbit losses are aggravated by large excursions in the outer gap width during current ramp-up. An investigation of this behavior using various energetic particle diagnostics on NSTX and TRANSP code analysis is presented.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03073
- OSTI ID:
- 838508
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-4060; TRN: US0600139
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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