Studies on Neutral Beam Injection into the SSPX Spheromak Plasma

In the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment, (SSPX) ['Improved operation of the SSPX spheromak', R.D. Wood, D.N. Hill, E.B. Hooper, S. Woodruff1, H.S. McLean and B.W. Stallard, Nucl. Fusion 45 1582-1588 (2005)], plasmas with core electron temperatures reaching up to 500 eV at densities of 10{sup 20}/m{sup 3} have been sustained for several milliseconds, making them suitable as targets for neutral beam injection. High performance and further progress in understanding Spheromak plasma physics are expected if neutral beams are injected into the plasma. This paper presents the results of numerical 1.5 D modeling of the plasma to calculate neutral beam current drive and ion and electron heating. The results are presented for varying initial conditions of density, temperatures and profiles and beam energy, injection angle and power. Current drive efficiency (Ampere/Watt of absorbed power) of up to 0.08 can be achieved with best performance SSPX shots as target. Analyses of neutral beam heating indicate that ion temperatures of up to 1.5 keV and electron temperatures of up to 750 eV can be obtained with injection of about 1 MW of neutral beam for 5-10 ms and with diffusivities typically observed in SSPX. Injection targeting near the magnetic axis appears to be the best for heating and current drive. Effect of the current drive and evolution of SSPX equilibrium are discussed