Implications of NSTX Lithium Results for Magnetic Fusion Research
Authors: M. Ono, M.G. Bell, R.E. Bell, R. Kaita, H.W. Kugel, B.P. LeBlanc, J.M. Canik, S. Diem, S.P.. Gerhardt, J. Hosea, S. Kaye, D. Mansfield, R. Maingi, J. Menard, S. F. Paul, R. Raman, S.A. Sabbagh, C.H. Skinner, V. Soukhanovskii, G. Taylor, and the NSTX Research Team
Abstract:
Lithium wall coating techniques have been experimentally explored on NSTX for the last five years. The lithium experimentation on NSTX started with a few milligrams of lithium injected into the plasma as pellets and it has evolved to a lithium evaporation system which can evaporate up to ~ 100 g of lithium onto the lower divertor plates between lithium reloadings. The unique feature of the lithium research program on NSTX is that it can investigate the effects of lithium in H-mode divertor plasmas. This lithium evaporation system thus far has produced many intriguing and potentially important results; the latest of these are summarized in a companion paper by H. Kugel. In this paper, we suggest possible implications and applications of the NSTX lithium results on the magnetic fusion research which include electron and global energy confinement improvements, MHD stability enhancement at high beta, ELM control, H-mode power threshold reduction, improvements in radio frequency heating and non-inductive plasma start-up performance, innovative divertor solutions and improved operational efficiency.
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Submitted to: Fusion Engineering and Design
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Download PPPL-4484 (pdf 3.7 MB 10 pp)
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