The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is being built at PPPL to test the fusion physics principles for the ST concept at the MA level. The NSTX nominal plasma parameters are R 0 = 85 cm, a = 67 cm, R/a ³ 1.26, B T = 3 kG, I p = 1 MA, q 95 = 14, elongation k £ 2.2, triangularity d £ 0.5, and plasma pulse length of up to 5 sec. The plasma heating / current drive (CD) tools are High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) (6 MW, 5 sec), Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) (5 MW, 80 keV, 5 sec), and Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI). Theoretical calculations predict that NSTX should provide exciting possibilities for exploring a number of important new physics regimes including very high plasma beta, naturally high plasma elongation, high bootstrap current fraction, absolute magnetic well, and high pressure driven sheared flow. In addition, the NSTX program plans to explore fully noninductive plasma start-up as well as a dispersive scrape-off layer for heat and particle flux handling. MotivationA broad range of encouraging advances has been made in the exploration of the Spherical Torus (ST) concept. 1 Such advances include promising experimental data from pioneering experiments, theoretical predictions, near-term fusion energy development projections such as the Volume Neutron Source 2 , and future applications such as power plant studies 3 . Recently, the START device has achieved a very high toroidal beta b T » 40% regime with b N » 5.0 at low q 95 » 3. 4 The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is being built at PPPL to test the fusion physics principles for the ST concept at the MA level. 5 The NSTX device/plasma configuration allows the plasma shaping factor, I p q 95 / a B , to reach as high as 80 an order of magnitude greater than that achieved in conventional high aspect ratio tokamaks. The key physics objective of NSTX is to attain an advanced ST regime; i.e., simultaneous ultra high beta (b), high confinement, and high bootstrap current fraction (f bs ). 6 This regime is considered to be essential for the development of an economical ST power-plant because it minimizes the recirculating power and power plant core size. Other NSTX mission elements crucial for ST power plant development are the demonstration at the MA level of fully noninductive operation and the development of acceptable power and particle handling concepts. NSTX Facility Design Capability and Technology ChallengesThe NSTX facility is designed to achieve the NSTX mission with the following capabilities: ¥ I p = 1 MA for low collisionality at relevant densities, ¥ R/a ³ 1.26, including OH solenoid and coaxial helicity injection 7 (CHI) for startup,
levels which might have a significant role in the light shift of the 22p level due to the 1.06-/im laser field are 6s, 7s, Ad, and 5d. These are far from being resonantly coupled to the 22p level, at least 1700 cm" 1 away. Their relative positions are such that their combined effects are partially cancelled* A rough evaluation showed that under these conditions the 5d level, which is expected to be responsible for the largest effect, contributes to the shift of the 22p level an amount of approximately 3xl0" 3 MHz/ MW-cm' 2 . This is at least 4 orders of magnitude less than the measured shift, and is thus completely negligible, With respect to the shift Lv g of the ground state, since it cannot be measured alone the best procedure is to calculate it as carefully and precisely possible. A calculation based on Fig. 1 has been carried out. 6 The result is &v g = -26.3 MHz/MW-cm" 2 . The dashed line in Fig. 3 corresponds to the sum of the two calculated shifts Ai/ e + Ay g , whereas the straight line corresponds to a least-squares fit on the measured shifts. Agreement between experimental and theoretical results is satisfactory.To conclude, this experiment provides clear evidence for the shift of a Rydberg level, due to an intense and strongly nonresonant em field. It is of interest to note that in a pure quantum treat-PACS numbers: 52.55.Gb, 52.35.Py On the PDX tokamak, large-amplitude magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fluctuations have been observed during plasma heating by injection of high-ment, radiative corrections can be interpreted as the sum of spontaneous and stimulated radiative corrections. The net effect of spontaneous radiative corrections due to vacuum fluctuations is well known to be responsible for the Lamb shift. In the same spirit, the light shifts which have been studied in our experiment can perhaps be viewed as resulting from the stimulated radiative corrections induced by an intense and nonresonant em field.We thank Professor CI. Cohen-Tannoudji for many helpful discussions concerning both the experiment and its interpretation. We are indebted to Dr. M. Aymar and Dr. M. Crance for their calculation of the shift of the ground state.Strong magnetohydrodynamic activity has been observed in PDX neutral-be am-heated discharges. It occurs for fi T q^ 0.045 and is associated with a significant loss of fast ions and a drop in neutron emission. As much as 20%~-40% of the beam heating power may be lost. The instability occurs in repetitive bursts of oscillations of ^ 1 msec duration at 1-6-msec intervals. The magnetohydrodynamic activity has been dubbed the "fishbone instability" from its characteristic signature on the Mirnov coils.
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