A new technique using a silicon surface barrier (SSB) diode has been developed for measuring the escaping fast ion flux from a tokamak plasma. Calibration of the detector with an ion beam showed that at a fixed energy the diode's output current varied linearly with the incident deuteron flux. The diode was mounted inside the PDX vacuum vessel with collimating apertures designed to admit the spiraling orbits of 50-keV deuterons expelled from the plasma by MHD instabilities. Results from PDX indicated that relative measurements of the escaping fast ion flux due to several plasma instabilities could be made.

During tangential neutral-beam injection into the PBX tokamak, bursts of two types of instabilities are observed. One instability occurs in the frequency range 120-210 kHz and the other oscillates predominantly near the frequency of bulk plasma rotation (20-30 kHz). Both instabilities correlate with drops in neutron emission and bursts in charge-exchange neutral flux, indicating that beam ions are removed from the center of the plasma by the instabilities. The central losses are comparable to the losses induced by the fishbone instability during perpendicular injection. © 1986 The American Physical Society.

A particle scoop limiter with a graphite face backed by a 50 liter volume for collecting particles was used in PDX. Experiments were performed to test its particle control and power handling capabilities with up to 5 MW of D° power injected into D+ plasmas. Line average plasma densities of up to 8 × 1013 cm-3 and currents up to 450 kA were obtained. Plasma densities in the scoop channels greater than 2 × 1013 cm-3 and neutral densities in the scoop volume greater than 5 × 1014 cm-3 were observed. There is evidence that recycling may have occurred in the scoop channels for several discharges with large line-averaged plasma density. At beam powers up to 2.5 MW, energy confinement times above 40 ms were deduced from magnetics measurements and from transport analysis. Pressures in the vacuum vessel were in the 10 -5 Torr range, and recycling source neutral densities in the central plasma were low. © 1984.

Recent results from the DIII-D tokamak have provided significant contributions to the understanding of many of the elements of tokamak physics and the application of this understanding to the design of next generation devices including ITER and CIT. The limitations of magnetohydrodynamic stability on the values of plasma beta (the ratio of kinetic pressure to the containing pressure of the magnetic field) that can be attained has been experimentally demonstrated and found to be described by existing theory. Values of beta (10.7%) well in excess of those required for proposed devices (ITER and CIT) have been demonstrated. Regimes of confinement (H-mode) have been established that scale favorably to proposed next generation devices, and experiments demonstrating the dependence of the energy confinement on plasma size have been completed. Understanding of confinement is rapidly developing especially in the areas of bulk transport and the role of turbulence in the plasma edge. Key experimental results in areas of plasma transport and edge plasma phenomena are in agreement with theories based on short wavelength turbulence. Control of the divertor heat loads and impurity influx has been demonstrated, and new progress has been made in the understanding of plasma edge phenomena. Experiments with ion Bernstein wave heating have not found regimes in which these waves can produce effective central ion heating. Electron cyclotron current drive experiments have demonstrated 70 kA of driven current in 400 kA discharges.