TESTS AND PERFORMANCE ON THE SIX GYROTRON SYSTEM ON THE DIII-D TOKAMAK

A271 TESTS AND PERFORMANCE ON THE SIX GYROTRON SYSTEM ON THE DIII-D TOKAMAK. The DIII-D gyrotron complex for electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) has been expanded to include five operational gyrotrons with a sixth being commissioned. The generated rf power exceeds 4.0 MW and the transmission lines deliver about 80% of this power to the tokamak. Among the experiments performed during the most recent campaign, the installation has been used to achieve stabilization of the m/n=2/1 and 3/2 neoclassical tearing modes, to control the rate of current penetration early in the discharge, and to study ECCD contributions to advanced tokamak discharges with high bootstrap fractions. Observations of the thermal performance of CVD diamond output windows have shown good agreement with theoretical predictions, but have revealed a number of interesting phenomena connected with impurities, including points of visible light emission at hot spots identified by infrared measurements. One window was cleaned in situ by alumina grit blasting and Raman spectra verified the removal of some surface contamination. A significant new capability is the simultaneous control of the output power of the entire array of gyrotrons by the DIII-D plasma control system. This allows a predetermined electron temperature evolution to be followed at a specific location in the plasma and opens a new group of experimental possibilities leading to the achievement of higher levels of tokamak performance