From: irby@PSFC.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: IRBY@PSFC.MIT.EDU
Subject: Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Organization: MIT


Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
April 19, 2002



Re-assembly of Alcator C-Mod continued this week. On Thursday a DoE Quarterly
Review of the Alcator C-Mod program was held. We continue to work on
the Lower Hybrid MIE project, ICRF upgrades, and diagnostic fabrications
and installations.


Physics
_______

The Alcator C-Mod DoE Quarterly Review was held via remote conferencing on
Thursday, 4/18. The agenda consisted of:

Welcome/Agenda Earl Marmar
Facility and Operations Jim Irby
DNB and Diagnostics Bob Granetz
Linux migration Josh Stillerman
ICRF Steve Wukitch
Lower Hybrid MIE Greg Pitonak, Joel Hosea, Ron Parker
Progress on LHCD modeling Paul Bonoli

Attending at DoE were Anne Davies, Rostom Dagazian, TV George, Esther Ku,
Warren Marton, and John Willis.

Attending at PPPL were Stefano Bernabei, Remi Dumont, Joel Hosea, Dale Meade,
Greg Pitonak, Gerd Schilling, and Skip Schoen.

Attending at MIT were Paul Bonoli, Jim Irby, Bob Granetz, Martin Greenwald,
Amanda Hubbard, Ian Hutchinson, Earl Marmar, Miklos Porkolab,
Bill Rowan (UTexas), Josh Stillerman, Steve Wolfe, Steve Wukitch,
and Howard Yuh.

Discussion primarily concentrated on the status of the LH MIE project, and
progress on machine re-assembly and the return to plasma operations.

Links to the presentation viewgraphs can be found at

http://www.psfc.mit.edu/cmod/sciprogram/Q_rev_apr02/

Dr. Marco Valisa, from Consortio RFX, visited this week to discuss
collaboration plans for the next year. This collaboration includes the
loan of their diagnostic neutral beam, which is now operating on Alcator
C-Mod. RFX spectroscopists are very interested in trying out a new
spectrometer design with their beam on C-Mod, but they will need some
initial spectra of a non-intrisic low-Z element, such as neon, fluorine, or
nitrogen, in order to optimize their instrument for a particular
wavelength. The first multi-week visit of an RFX physicist will start
after plasma operation begins for the summer campaign, and the spectrometer
could be here during the latter part of the summer. We have a number of
fiber views that we could provide for them to get started.

Dr. H. Kubo of JT-60U visited the PSFC from April 17th through April
19th. Dr. Kubo is an experimentalist interested in edge and divertor
physics as well as impurity spectroscopy. During his visit he had
discussions with many of the C-Mod staff and presented a lecture
"Atomic and Molecular Processes for Heat and Particle Control in
Tokamaks"


Operations
----------

Re-assembly of Alcator C-Mod this week concentrated on installation of the
LN2 cooling lines, the ef and oh coax extensions, and the horizontal ports.
Installation of 4 out of 10 horizontal ports has now allowed invessel work
involving antenna and diagnostic installations to continue. Installation of
the coax extensions allows preparations to be made for hi-pot and ringing
tests that will qualify C-Mod assembly at the "tokamak complete" stage.

Work continued on magnet bus work refurbishment. Also, all upper vertical
flange surfaces have been polished and the tear-drop adapters installed
in preparation for installation of the vacuum crosses and tees that provide
interfaces for instrumentation and diagnostic cabling.


ICRF Systems
------------

The bake of the J-Port straps was completed early in the week and these
components are now ready for installation. Prep work on the D and
E-Port Faraday screens was completed and these components are now
undergoing a bake. Installation, followed by a successful leakcheck, of the
J-Port horizontal flange has prepared the way for invessel antenna assembly.

Boron nitride tile fabrication in our machine shop is complete and the
tiles are being prepared for a 1200 C bake. These tiles, along with the MHD
antenna tiles, will be baked for approximately 48 hours to reduce the level
of trapped hydrogen in the tiles.


RFX DNB
-------

The beam is now being positioned with respect to the newly installed F-Port
horizontal flange. Diagnostic components are being installed on the flange
and components of the DNB beamline are being attached. Plans are being made
for installation of an LN2 feedline for the beam cryopanels from our main tank.
This fill line will also provide service for the planned invessel cryopump.


Diagnostics
-----------

Now that the entry way port extension has been installed, we have resumed
invessel work. The outer divertor is now re-torqued, the current shunts
resurfaced, the Thomson scattering viewing dump installed, the new
inner wall scanning probe and associated wall tiles also installed, and
preparations are being made to install the new F-Hor periscope, VB
viewing dump, and MSE/BES optics.