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


Alcator C-Mod Weekly Highlights
February 21, 2003


On February 20 and 21 a meeting of the Alcator C-Mod Program Advisory
Committee was held at MIT. Work continued invessel on diagnostics and
instrumentation. Fabrication and installation of control coils also
continued. Work on the lower hybrid launcher is proceeding well at
PPPL.


Physics
-------

A meeting of the Alcator C-Mod Program Advisory Committee was held at
MIT on Thursday and Friday of this week. The committee members are:

Vincent Chan (GA), Tony Leonard (GA), Dick Majeski (PPPL), Mike Mauel
(Columbia, chair), John Sarff (U. Wisc), Alan Sykes (UKAEA), Yuichi
Takase (U. Tokyo), and George Tynan (UCSD).

All eight members of the committee attended the meeting. Rostom Dagazian
attended from DoE.

Presentations were given by the Alcator C-Mod Group on the current
status of our research and plans for the next five years. These
presentations can be found at

http://www.psfc.mit.edu/cmod/sciprogram/Cmod_PAC_2003.html

The committee was asked to provide feedback and guidance on our
proposed five year program, including the goals and priorities, in the
context of C-Mod's place in the national and international magnetic
fusion programs. They were also asked to provide feedback on how best
to present our program in light of our upcoming review.

Following the presentations, the committee gave their initial verbal
feedback to the group. Written recommendations will be given to
Miklos Porkolab and Ian Hutchinson shortly.


Operations
----------

The invessel E-Port antenna installation is complete except for the BN
tiles which will be installed just before pumpdown. The new J-Port
antenna back plate has been machined and has been sent out for
plating.

Five of the eight control coils are complete. Winding has begun on
the sixth. Documentation of the power supply and the in cell
connections for the new control coils is underway. All materials are
in house for the control coil patch panels with fabrication to begin
soon.


Lower Hybrid MIE Project
------------------------

By this Friday, all major components for the LHCD launcher had been
been received at PPPL. Recent deliveries included all high power
phase shifters, rear waveguide assemblies, and standard waveguide
component loops. The last component (protective tile assembly) will
be delivered the first week of March. Work is progressing on
installing the launcher vacuum assembly on the vacuum test stand.
Vacuum testing is expected to be performed early March. RF testing of
the rear waveguide assembly will begin next week.

At MIT, the dummy load has been brought back online and 50 kV tests of
the HVPS and crowbar were completed successfully. Some overcurrent
trips have been detected and are being debugged. Work on the fixture
to mount the first circulator is well underway. The ethernet fiber
optic lines to the three cart equipment racks are operational. The
data acquisition racks will be installed within the next few days.
Work also continued on the active controller software.

Details of the Lower Hybrid CAMAC timing system are being worked out.
IDL programs for the operator interface to the timing system are being
developed. Parts of the DNB timing program will be used as a model
for this system. Don Patterson, UT, who developed the DNB software is
helping out with this process.


Travel and Visits
-----------------

Ned Sauthoff and Gerd Schilling, both from PPPL, attended the C-Mod
PAC meeting. Gerd Schilling presented the PPPL collaboration's
contributions to the C-Mod program and participated in programmatic
discussions.

Bill Rowan, UT, was also at MIT this week and attended the PAC meeting.