Design Details of the Transient CHI Plasma Start-up System on NSTX-U

Author

Raman, Raghu ; Jarboe, T.R. ; Nelson, B.A. ; Mueller, Daniel ; Jardin, S.C. ; Neumeyer, C. ; Ono, M. ; Menard, J.E.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Volume

42

Issue

8

fYear

2014

fDate

Aug. 2014

Firstpage

2154

Lastpage

2160

Abstract

Elimination of the central solenoid would simplify the engineering design of a fusion nuclear science facility and tokamak based devices. The method of transient coaxial helicity injection (CHI) has successfully demonstrated formation of a high-quality closed flux plasma in NSTX and will be used as the front end of the start-up method for a full demonstration of noninductive current start-up, followed by noninductive current ramp-up using neutral beams in the NSTX-U device that is now under construction at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. CHI is implemented by driving current along open field lines that connect the lower inner and outer divertor plates of a spherical torus. The engineering system requirements and the design of the CHI system on NSTX-U are described.

Keywords

Tokamak devices; fusion reactor design; fusion reactor divertors; solenoids; NSTX-U; Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; central solenoid elimination; design details; divertor plates; driving current; engineering design; front end; fusion nuclear science facility; high-quality closed flux plasma; neutral beams; noninductive current ramp-up; noninductive current start-up; open field lines; spherical torus; tokamak based devices; transient CHI plasma start-up system; transient coaxial helicity injection; Capacitors; Coils; Discharges (electric); Fault diagnosis; Plasmas; Toroidal magnetic fields; Transient analysis; CHI; NSTX; NSTX-U; helicity injection; noninductive; plasma start-up; solenoid-free; spherical torus (ST);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2014.2334553

Filename

6862911