Engineering overview of the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment

Abstract

The National Spherical Tokamak Experiment (NSTX) is an ultra low aspect ratio (R/a=1.25; R=80 cm) device designed for a plasma current of 1 MA. It features auxiliary heating and current drive and a close-fitting conducting shell to maximize plasma pressure (43% beta). NSTX is designed for a 5 sec. experimental pulse to demonstrate quasi-steady state non-inductively driven advanced tokamak operation. The design takes maximum advantage of existing components and facilities from previous devices at PPPL to reduce the program costs. The device will be sited in the former Princeton Large Torus (PLT) test cell and will utilize the PLT radiation shielding, base structure, and cell utilities. NSTX will utilize the S-1 Spheromak vacuum vessel, poloidal field coils, and capacitor banks (for helicity injection). The Poloidal Beta Experiment-Modified (PBX-M) power supplies will be shared to power the PF and TF coil systems. Existing RF hardware and infrastructure will be used for heating systems. TFTR data acquisition and diagnostics resources are planned to be used. In total, NSTX will utilize site credits with a value of /spl sim/$50 M, reducing base construction cost of the device to $18.6 M. Twelve water-cooled copper demountable toroidal field (TF) coils provide the 5.4 kg (pulsed) and 3.5 kg (long pulse >5 sec) toroidal field at the plasma center. Poloidal fields are generated by windings contained in the center column and four pairs water-cooled copper coils supported directly on the vacuum vessel. One of the most critical components of the device is the center stack, which consists of the inner legs of the TF coils overwrapped with ohmic heating and poloidal field windings. The ohmic heating coil windings are designed to optimize the V-s and together with the PF coils, produce a flux swing of 1 V-s.