Prairie View A&M University, Historically Black College and University (HBCU)
Professor Tian-sen Huang
The Prairie View Plasma Lab (PVPL) is the only fusion plasma lab operated at an HBCU, and a major research and education base at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). The lab has two rotamak devices supported by two 500kHz/400 kW rf generators to operate rotating magnetic field drive-FRC plasma. Since PVPL was established in 2001, PPPL/OSUR provided significant technical and material support during the lab's construction to its late operation and upgrade. Because there is no engineering support service at PVAMU, in setting up PVPL's equipment with the disassembled parts of an old rotamak device from Australia, PPPL/OSUR organized an engineering team that gave the PVPL team assistance. Particularly, in setting the rf power system and turbo pump the OSUR's help was critical. In conducting various experiments, PVPL has continually acquired PPPL/OSUR's assistance. Almost each year PPPL/OSUR has sent scientists or engineers to PVPL. OSUR's assistance includes setting up of a gas puffing system, providing a data acquisition system from CAMAC hardware previously used on TFTR, improving probe and spectroscopic diagnostics, manufacturing copper rings for magnetic flux control, providing a Phantom 7.3 camera for measurements on a rotamak to record the FRC plasma's tilt mode instability, and completing the rf power measurement system. In addition, PPPL/OSUR gave support to PVPL staff to travel to PPPL for scientific discussions. This program has been very successful in publishing papers and training students.
Photographs of PVAMU students in front of experiment and near the data acquisition and other instrumentation.
