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2000
NSTX produces a 1.0-million-ampere full-design plasma current, nine months
ahead of schedule, followed by the production of 1.4 million amperes in 2001.
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2002
The safe disassembly and removal of TFTR, a three-year effort, is completed on
schedule and under budget, freeing up this advanced facility for future work.
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A combination of neutral-beam-driven and self-generated "bootstrap current"
in NSTX provides about 60 percent of the total plasma current, thereby relaxing the
need for induction to sustain the current.
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PPPL engineers develop the Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System
(MINDS) a portable system that can detect radionuclides for anti-terrorism.
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2004
NSTX achieves a record toroidal beta of 40%, three times the values in conventional
tokamaks. Beta relates to fusion power production economics.
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The CDX-U device demonstrates that liquid lithium surfaces facing or contacting
the plasma result in a dramatic improvement in plasma parameters.
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2005
NSTX researchers develop methods to sustain high beta by employing a set
of small magnetic coils, controlled by feedback, to counteract the growth of
certain instabilities.
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Experiments on PPPL's Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) identified
the Hall effects in the reconnection layer, explaining fast reconnection in
collision free plasmas.
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2006
A 160-thousand-ampere plasma current is initiated in NSTX without induction
from its central solenoid. This world record is attained using a technique
known as Coaxial Helicity Injection.
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2007
The evaporation of lithium coatings on plasma facing components in NSTX is
shown to improve plasma confinement and to prevent instabilities called
Edge-Localized Modes.
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MRX group identified the electron diffusion region demonstrating the
importance of two-fluid effects in the reconnection layer.
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2008
First-of-a-kind high spatial resolution measurements on NSTX confirm the
existence of a long-theorized form of plasma turbulence driven by variation of
the electron temperature across the plasma. Tiny swirls of turbulence in the
plasma may be one cause of the long-standing mystery of electron heat loss.
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The Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX) produces its first plasma. The new
device will continue CDX-U's promising work on the use of pure lithium metal
on plasma facing components.
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2009
Stewart C. Prager becomes the sixth Director of PPPL.
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