TCS Overview and Vacuum System Upgrade
Abstract
The RMF has been shown to be effective at driving toroidal currents in FRCs. Equilibrium is achieved when the torque applied to the electrons by the RMF balances the torque on the electrons due to plasma resistivity. This torque balance sets a relation between the density, the RMF, and the plasma resistivity. It does not impose a hard constraint on either the external field, or the temperature, which are related to the density through radial pressure balance. Since the temperature appears to have been limited in past experiments by impurity ingestion and subsequent radiation after the initial formation phase, the confining external field was also limited. An upgrade of the TCS vacuum chamber is presently underway to address the impurity issue and thus allow higher temperature and field operation. All o-rings are being removed and heating blankets will be installed to bake the system. Tantalum clad internal flux rings will be installed to shield the quartz vacuum wall from the plasma. Cleaning and wall conditioning will be performed with a glow discharge and boronization and/or titanium gettering.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DPPGP1055M