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A Thomson scattering (TS) system has been developed on Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) to measure the electron temperature and the density. In VEST, it is quite challenging to measure TS signals because the energy of the utilized pulsed laser and the target electron density are low, 0.85 J and ∼5 × 1018 m−3, respectively. Furthermore, the difficulties caused by filter specifications have to be resolved because of the use of commercial interference filters with broad bandwidth and poor blocking at the laser wavelength. Therefore, we especially optimize the placement order of the filter sets based on the evaluation of the relative errors to overcome the poor spectral resolution. In addition, the amount of the stray light that penetrating filters is reduced by vacuum components such as baffles, louvres, and a viewing dump. With the careful installation and the optimization of the system, we can develop an efficient Thomson scattering system. Recently, TS signals have been successfully measured from the ohmic plasmas, and the electron temperature and the density are determined by analyzing the signals with the Bayesian method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An equilibrium fitting code using finite element method is developed for various plasma studies, especially on non-inductive start-up and ECH heating & current drive experiments in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus. The magnetic diagnostics are applied to provide the basic equilibrium fitting constraints. As severe eddy currents are induced by not only the PF coils but also the plasma current itself, the eddy current component from the magnetic signals is dealt with the vessel wall model in the eddy current solver and carefully compensated, which is essential for accurate equilibrium fitting. The fast camera image analysis method is adopted and the limiter current monitoring system is developed for validating the results of the plasma position and shape from the code. The equilibrium fitting code is applied to the limited and diverted plasma configuration in VEST and the time evolution of the plasma position and shape and even averaged magnetohydrodynamic parameters such as the edge safety factor and the internal inductance are extracted. Additionally, the equilibrium fitting code is used to analyze the non-inductive plasma start-up experiment using the direct current helicity injection in VEST. Especially, it is the first time to apply the finite element method to direct current helicity injection experiment and ECH heated plasmas which have significant amount of plasma current flowing along the open field line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operational scenario for diverted plasmas has been developed in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) not only for improving plasma performance but also for preparing upcoming experiments on advanced divertor concepts such as snowflake and x-point divertor. Diverted discharge scenario is designed using an in-house simulation code and experimentally realized by adjusting turn-on time of two partial solenoid (PF2) coils located at both ends of the center stack. With the diverted scenario, we achieve the improvement in plasma duration by ∼20% compared to the limited plasma operation, mainly due to the mitigation of impurity influxes from the center stack made of tungsten. Indeed, the impurity O-I line is observed to be decreased to 50% of the limited plasma operation. Fast camera images and equilibrium reconstruction based on magnetic diagnostics clearly shows the successful generation of diverted plasmas as well. This paper presents the first results on the diverted plasma operation in VEST and future plan for the experiments on the advanced divertor concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wall conditioning and impurity monitoring systems are developed in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST). As a wall conditioning system, a baking system covering the vacuum vessel wall partially and a glow discharge cleaning (GDC) system using two electrodes with dc and 50 kHz power supplies are installed. The GDC system operates with hydrogen and helium gases for both chemical and physical desorption. The impurity monitoring system with residual gas analyzer (RGA), operating at <10 −5 Torr with a differential pumping system, is installed along with the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) system to monitor the hydrogen and impurity radiation lines. Effects of these wall conditioning techniques are investigated with the impurity monitoring system for ohmic discharges of VEST. The partial baking and He GDC show limited effects on plasma characteristics but sufficient H 2 GDC above 4 h enables the longer plasma current duration up to ∼15 ms within 3 h from the end of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Thomson scattering diagnostic system is designed for Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) to measure the spatial profiles of the electron temperature. The system is carefully designed to collect a sufficient number of photoelectrons and to reduce the noise sources, since relatively low electron densities and temperatures are expected in VEST due to the limited power capacity at present. The target electron temperature and the density are 10–200 eV and 5 × 10 18 m −3 , respectively which are extrapolated from the data of triple Langmuir probes measuring the edge plasma parameters at R = 0.75 m by assuming a parabolic density profile. The collecting optics is designed to have a wide-view angle and low cost by using a commercial photographic lens of low f-number and high transmittance optical fiber bundle. The bandwidths of the interference filters in the polychromator are designed for reliable measurements within the target electron temperature range. As a photo detector which is coupled with the filters, an avalanche photodiode (APD) with a low dark current and an adequate quantum efficiency near the laser wavelength is selected for the high signal-to-noise ratio. The number of photons transferred to the polychromator and the number of photoelectrons in the APD are calculated. At the commissioning phase, an oscilloscope with a high sampling rate will be adopted to check the necessity of the noise reduction by multi-shot signal accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-current pulsed ion source has been developed for the neutral beam injector of the VEST (Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus) to accommodate high-beta fusion plasma experiments. The ion source consists of two parts: an electron gun for supplying sufficient primary electrons by cold-cathode arc discharge and a hemi-cylindrical discharge chamber where uniform, high-density plasma generated by the primary electrons is confined by multi-cusp magnetic field. A pulse forming network is also developed to drive high current of ∼1 kA to sustain the cold-cathode discharge in the electron gun up to 10 ms. Diagnostics with a triple probe in the discharge chamber shows that a hydrogen plasma whose density is as high as 1 × 10 18 m −3 can be obtained near extraction slits at the gas pressure lower than 0.5 Pa. This value is estimated to be sufficient to deposit a heating power of 90 kW to the VEST plasma when the appropriate extraction through slits with 20 cm 2 in area and acceleration of ion beams up to 20 kV are fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A helicity injection system for the Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) has been successfully developed and commissioned. A high current electron gun utilizing hollow cathode and washer stacks has been designed and constructed with a single pulse power system that can provide voltages for both arc discharge and extraction sequentially. Tests for electron gun operation with the single pulse power system have been conducted under various toroidal and poloidal field strengths. The estimated plasma impedance, depending on the injection magnetic field structure, can be utilized for the optimal gun operation by impedance matching between the pulse power system and plasma. With the charging voltage of 1.2 kV, injection current of 0.95 kA has been obtained with the injection voltage of 410 V for about 5 ms. Initial helicity injection experiments have been conducted under various toroidal and poloidal field strengths and a toroidal plasma current of up to 3.8 kA is observed with the current multiplication larger than the geometric stacking ratio, confirming the possibility of relaxation into tokamak-like plasma with closed flux formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A toroidal field (TF) coil power system has been designed and successfully commissioned to be suitable for the research objectives of VEST (Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus) which was recently constructed at Seoul National University. The TF coil power system for VEST is fabricated using a series–parallel connection of 200 deep-cycle batteries with 100Ah capacity so as to generate flat-top TF field of 0.12T on magnetic axis for sufficiently long time up to hundreds of milliseconds. Ten battery modules are designed to operate independently through 10 magnetic contactor (MC) switches so as to produce toroidal magnetic field with various amplitudes and waveforms. During the initial start-up experiments of VEST, the modulation capability of toroidal magnetic field is successfully verified, showing possibility of its versatile utilization on various experimental topics in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A magnetic diagnostic system was designed, fabricated, and calibrated for measuring main parameters of the initial-phase-discharges in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) recently constructed at Seoul National University. Inner and outer Rogowski coils, flux loops, magnetic field probes, and an internal magnetic probe array were designed to have a desired frequency range with a reliable sensitivity. The sensors were carefully shielded to minimize damages from plasmas and microwaves with thermal and electromagnetic protections. The calibration with a known magnetic field generated by a Helmholtz coil or in-situ calibration was performed for the fabricated sensors. The prepared magnetic diagnostics have been successfully used to measure various parameters such as plasma current, loop voltages, and magnetic field structure inside the vacuum vessel for initial plasma experiments in VEST. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A control and data acquisition system for VEST (Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus) at Seoul National University (SNU) has been developed to enable remote operation from a central control room. The control and data acquisition system consists of three subsystems; a main control and data acquisition system that triggers each device at the preprogrammed timing and collects various diagnostic signals during discharges, a monitoring system that watches and logs the device status continuously, and a data storage and distribution system that stores collected data and provides data access layer via Ethernet. The system is designed to be cost-effective, extensible and easy to develop by using well-established standard technologies and solutions. Combining broad accessibility with modern information technology, alarm signal can be sent immediately to the registered cell phones when the abnormal status of devices is found, and the web data distribution system enables data access from almost everywhere using smart phones or tablet computers. Since December 2011, VEST is operational and the control and data acquisition system has been successfully used for remote operation of VEST. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Initial plasma start-up experiments based on ohmic discharge using partial solenoid coils located at both vertical ends of a center stack have been carried out in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) at Seoul National University. Ohmic discharges with the help of microwave pre-ionization have been performed according to the pre-programed start-up scenario which was experimentally verified by a series of vacuum field measurements using an internal magnetic probe array. A plasma current of around 0.4kA has been achieved by ohmic discharge using partial solenoid coils, under the toroidal magnetic field of 0.1T. The vacuum field calculation and fast camera image have revealed that the small plasma current even with significant amount of loop voltage up to 9.7V is attributed to the imbalance of poloidal field for equilibrium. Modification of the start-up scenario and upgrade of power supplies are proposed to be carried out in order to achieve higher plasma current in the future experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The initial neutral beam heating experiment in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) has been conducted via neutral beam characterizations such as neutralization efficiency, beam fraction, and shine-through loss. For the neutralization efficiency and shine-through loss estimation, a secondary electron emission (SEE) detector, which can be used in rapidly changing plasma, has been developed. The measurement results of the monatomic fraction by Doppler shift spectroscopy and the neutralization efficiency by SEE detector are 65%, and 70%, respectively. The shine-through loss measurement shows that the injection of a 12 keV neutral beam into a typical ohmic discharge of VEST results in a large amount of shine-through loss. To reduce the shine-through loss, a new target plasma discharge (0.17 T, 120 kA, 13 ms) with increased plasma density of ~ 2 × 10 19 m − 3 is developed by providing additional gas injection. The electron-heating effect has been successfully observed for this target plasma with a 200 kW neutral beam injection at the beam energy of 12 keV. The electron temperature increases from 20 to 68 eV without significant density change when the neutral beam is injected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]