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In ST Tokamak discharges with hydrogen or helium as the working gas the measured plasma resistance is usually found to be slight but consistently larger (1.1-1.5 times) than the resistance calculated from measured electron temperature and ionic charge radial profiles. The discrepancy has been ascribed tentatively to undetected high-Z material (Mo or W) from the aperture limiter. Recent experiments with neon, with effective ionic charge Z=9-10 in the discharge, do show good agreement between measured and calculated resistance. In other respects the behaviour of the neon discharge differs only slightly and in the expected direction from hydrogen or helium discharges: larger power input, higher electron temperature, and higher radiation losses. Also, measurement of the intensities of the recently discovered resonance lines of Mo XIII and Mo XIV do indicate a molybdenum concentration in the discharges of the ST Tokamak that is adequate to account for the above mentioned discrepancies in the resistance of H and He plasmas.

Transition rate equations for atomic hydrogen are solved to obtain coefficients for population of excited levels and for ionization and recombination. The results are based upon more accurate transition rates, cover a wider range of plasma parameters, and are obtained by a more general solution of the rate equations than previously available compilations. Diagnostic applications for laboratory plasmas are discussed.