Design and construction of TPE-2M

A compact RFP (reversed field pinch) machine, TPE-2M, was constructed. It was designed to research methods of confinement improvement of RFP plasma. The vacuum vessel has major/minor radii of 73 cm/20 cm and is made of thin stainless steel. The stabilizing shell is made of 40-mm-thick aluminum and is double-layer structured to minimize the error field at the shell cut. The poloidal coil for inducing the plasma current (>200 kA) is coupled with an iron core of 0.7-Vs flux swing. An axisymmetric poloidal divertor is provided to control the particle and heat exhausts from the edge plasma. A power supply system for 1-MJ energy is connected to each coil in order to obtain a fast rising and long duration pulse. The power supply system, the vacuum system, and the data acquisition system are computer-controlled. A preliminary bank test shows that the machine performance is sufficient for the plasma experiment. Expected plasma temperature and sustained time are 0.5 keV and 5 ms, respectively