From the Director

Fiscal year 2004 (October 2003 – September 2004) was a year of excellent advances in the understanding of fusion plasmas and progress in the negotiations towards the implementation of the ITER Project. We at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are particularly pleased that the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) had a banner year with 21 weeks of experimental operations; the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) passed both Department of Energy (DOE) Critical Decision 2 and Critical Decision 3 allowing the start of construction; and PPPL, partnering with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), was selected through a broad competition to host the U.S. ITER Project Office. The FY04 campaign on NSTX was very successful, leading to deeper understanding of fusion plasmas, scientific information of importance for ITER, and development of long-pulse high-beta operating scenarios for a future Spherical Torus Component (ST) Test Facility and ultimately a power plant. Advances were made in the understanding of resistive wall modes, plasma kinks which grow up on the resistive diffusion time of the conducting walls, including for the first time detection of toroidal mode number n=3 components of the perturbed fields. New resistive wall mode control coils were exercised for the first time and shown to have a favorable effect on locked modes. Confinement trends in ST's were elucidated, and transport barriers were observed in plasmas calculated to have reversed shear. New insight was gained into the nonlinear behavior of fast particle modes, and a new class of edge localized modes was discovered, which has minimal impact on the divertor. The NCSX passed a number of tough DOE reviews, the Critical Decision 2, project baselining, and also Critical Decision 3, construction authorization. Contracts were let to industry for critical items: the vacuum vessel subassembly and the modular coil winding forms. These contracts were optimized by a risk-reduction process in which multiple vendors performed construction R&D, and then those with the best results and most attractive bids were selected for fixed-price construction contracts. This year DOE selected the host for the U.S. ITER Project Office through a broad competition among the National Laboratories. PPPL, with ORNL as a partner, submitted a bid to host the Project Office at PPPL, and after an arduous review we were selected. This means that PPPL, with support from ORNL, will have responsibility for managing the construction of the U.S. components for the international ITER Project. This is a major responsibility for the Laboratory, which we accept with enthusiasm. As Princeton University President, Dr. Shirley Tilghman, pointed out in her letter of support, this is fully consistent with Princeton's motto: "In the nation's service, and the service of all nations." PPPL is continuing to support the ITER negotiation process, as it moves towards the selection of a site for the Project. ITER is a very important project for the U.S. and the world. It will demonstrate for the first time production of near-industrial levels of fusion power. Results from ITER will be directly applicable to the spherical torus (NSTX) and to the compact stellarator (NCSX), as well as the tokamak, because of the close similarity in physics across these three plasma configurations. The PPPL Theory Department continued to make very important advances. Two of particular interest were in the areas of the nonlinear physics of energetic particles and the nonlinear physics of plasma turbulence. In the area of energetic particles, simulations were completed in which the plasma was treated as a fluid, but the energetic particles were treated fully kinetically. The observed nonlinear frequency shift of the modes in NSTX with amplitude was nicely reproduced. This is a critical step towards physics understanding in ITER. In the area of plasma turbulence, there has been a long-standing question as to the locality of turbulent transport. Does the turbulence and transport at a given location depend only on the local sources of free energy (e.g., density and temperature gradients) or does it depend on more global plasma parameters? For the first time the effect of turbulence spreading was shown conclusively in simulations, allowing this topic to move from debate to quantifying the magnitude of the effect and including it in the analysis of data. Computational efforts continued to grow, as the PPPL Computational Plasma Physics Group (CPPG) plays a key role in the Fusion Collaboratory by putting the TRANSP data analysis code "on the Grid," making it available both nationally and internationally. The approach of maintaining this large code on a single architecture and making it available through the Grid has been very successful. The CPPG also continues to advance theory at the Lab by porting the most advanced codes to the most advanced new platforms and by implementing the most advanced algorithms, such as Adaptive Mesh Refinement, in theory codes. The PPPL Off-Site Research effort has flourished in FY04. On the DIII-D tokamak we implemented a high-precision poloidal rotation diagnostic, based on experimental techniques and analysis developed on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. We also observed for the first time a "sea" of Alfvén modes in DIII-D, which appear in reversed-shear discharges. We are implementing the very challenging motional Stark effect diagnostic on Alcator C-Mod, and helping the Massachusetts Institute of Technology group bring online a lower hybrid wave launcher. At the Joint European Torus (JET) we are implementing a set of diagnostics for lost alpha particles, based on the tools we developed and implemented on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, and we are working with ORNL on a high power prototype ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) antenna to help optimize the new JET ICRF system. PPPL has provided critical insight into the physics of negative ion neutral beams in support of both JT-60U and the Large Helical Device (LHD) in Japan. In our smaller experiments and Work for Others, we have also made fast progress. Some examples include the Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade experiment, which won a competition to be modified to the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX), not in small part because of its demonstration that liquid lithium surfaces in contact with high temperature plasmas result in dramatic reduction in plasma recycling. Another example is the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment, which has recently been upgraded, and for the first time has demonstrated the expected difference between parallel and perpendicular resistivity as predicted by Lyman Spitzer, the Laboratory's first director, in his classic treatise on the physics of ionized gases. Plasma neutralizers for heavy ion beams, developed at PPPL, have successfully improved the focus of these beams in experiments at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Hall Thruster experiment has extended its research to very low power thrusters, which might be used for small satellites traveling in coordinated groups, as needed for a number of applications. Our plasma sterilization effort is successfully using an innovative technique to kill microbes. In summary, this has been a busy and successful year. Our experiments and theoretical efforts are advancing the understanding of fusion plasmas; PPPL, partnering with ORNL, has been selected to host the U.S. ITER Project Office; and our efforts across the broader frontier of plasma science are meeting with success. With luck, at the end of FY05 we will be able to report that a site has been selected for the ITER Project, negotiations are underway towards an ITER agreement, and the domestic fusion program at PPPL and elsewhere will be strengthened to assure that the U.S. is able to take advantage of the advances that ITER will provide. Professor Goldston's resume.

Additional Information about PPPL

The PPPL FY2004 Annual Highlights Report is available as a PDF file or as a printed report. The PDF file is 6.8 MB and, for ease of use, links have been created to each section from the table of contents. If you would like a printed copy of the Highlights Report, e-mail Publications and Reports at pub-reports@pppl.gov. Be sure to include your complete mailing address.

PPPL is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed by Princeton University.

About PPPL || How to Contact PPPL || News at PPPL || Fusion Basics Research Projects || Technology Transfer || Education Programs Publications || Meetings and Colloquia || PPPL Home Page

Created: 22 July 2005 Send questions or comments to: Anthony R. DeMeo at ademeo@pppl.gov