NSTX operates at low aspect ratio (R/a∼1.3) and high beta (up to 40%), allowing tests of global confinement and local transport properties that have been established from higher aspect ratio devices. NSTX plasmas are heated by up to 7 MW of deuterium neutral beams with preferential electron heating as expected for ITER. Confinement scaling studies indicate a strong B T dependence, with a current dependence that is weaker than that observed at higher aspect ratio. Dimensionless scaling experiments indicate a strong increase of confinement with decreasing collisionality and a weak degradation with beta. The increase of confinement with B T is due to reduced transport in the electron channel, while the improvement with plasma current is due to reduced transport in the ion channel related to the decrease in the neoclassical transport level. Improved electron confinement has been observed in plasmas with strong reversed magnetic shear, showing the existence of an electron internal transport barrier (eITB). The development of the eITB may be associated with a reduction in the growth of microtearing modes in the plasma core. Perturbative studies show that while L-mode plasmas with reversed magnetic shear and an eITB exhibit slow changes of L T e across the profile after the pellet injection, H-mode plasmas with a monotonic q-profile and no eITB show no change in this parameter after pellet injection, indicating the existence of a critical gradient that may be related to the q-profile. Both linear and non-linear simulations indicate the potential importance of ETG modes at the lowest B T . Localized measurements of high-k fluctuations exhibit a sharp decrease in signal amplitude levels across the L-H transition, associated with a decrease in both ion and electron transport, and a decrease in calculated linear microinstability growth rates across a wide k-range, from the ITG/TEM regime up to the ETG regime.

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) operates between 0.35 and 0.55 T, which, when coupled to up to 7 MW of neutral beam injection, leads to central rotation velocities in excess of 300 km s−1 and E × B shearing rates up to 1 MHz. This level of E × B shear can be up to a factor of five greater than typical linear growth rates of long-wavelength ion (e.g. ITG) modes, at least partially suppressing these instabilities. Evidence for this turbulence suppression is that the inferred diffusive ion thermal flux in NSTX H-modes is often at the neoclassical level, and thus these plasmas operate in an electron-dominated transport regime. Analysis of experiments using n = 3 magnetic fields to change plasma rotation indicate that local rotation shear influences local transport coefficients, most notably the ion thermal diffusivity, in a manner consistent with suppression of the low-k turbulence by this rotation shear. The value of the effective momentum diffusivity, as inferred from steady-state momentum balance, is found to be larger than the neoclassical value. Results of perturbative experiments indicate inward pinch velocities of up to 40 m s−1 and perturbative momentum diffusivities of up to 4 m2 s−1, which are larger by a factor of several than those values inferred from steady-state analysis. The inferred pinch velocity values are consistent with values based on theories in which low-k turbulence drives the inward momentum pinch. Thus, in NSTX while the neoclassical ion energy transport effects can be relatively high and dominate the ion energy transport, the neoclassical momentum transport effects are near zero, meaning that transport of momentum is dominated by any low-k turbulence that exists.

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