A Review of NSTX Research 1999-2015
Authors: S. M. Kaye
Abstract: Introduction - The National Spherical
Torus eXperiment (NSTX) was a medium-sized Spherical Tokamak (ST)
whose aim is to: 1. Establish attractive ST operating
scenarios and configurations 2. Complement tokamak physics and
support ITER 3. Understand the unique physics properties of
the ST. The goal of the first mission element is to utilize
advantages of the ST configuration for addressing key gaps between
ITER performance and the expected performance of an ST based FNSF1
or ST based DEMO2. One such
gap is fully non-inductive operation. To achieve the second
mission element, NSTX would exploit unique ST features to improve
tokamak understanding, such as by leveraging the unique ST
parameter range to benchmark and validate theories that could then
be used to predict performance in future devices.
Furthermore, NSTX would contribute to ITER final design activities
and research preparation. The unique ST properties consist
of large toroidicity, very high βT, high vfast/vAlfven
and high ExB shearing rate.
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