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Plasmas in the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF), an l = 2 torsatron with 12 field periods, are produced by 200–400 kW of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and up to 1.5 MW of neutral-beam injection (NBI). The characteristics of the plasmas are sensitive to the type of wall conditioning employed. A progression of techniques, beginning with glow discharge cleaning and baking and evolving to gettering with chromium and titanium, has significantly reduced the low-Z impurity content, lowered the fraction of radiated power, and permitted improved control over the electron density. As a result, plasma-parameters and machine performance have been enhanced significantly. The maximum values achieved for stored energy, line-averaged density, and confinement times are 28 kJ, 1.2 × 1020m−3, and 25 ms. These parameters are comparable to those obtained in the ISX-B tokamak. In addition, with titanium gettering, quasisteady operation for 200 ms of neutral beam injection has been obtained without the collapses that characterized earlier periods of operation.

Chromium gettering has been proven to be a trouble-free and efficient method of surface pumping in tokamaks. The impurity control capabilities are excellent and comparable to that of titanium. The hydrogen uptake is reduced to monolayer quantities on the surface. The expansion of the operating space is similar to that seen with titanium without the disadvantage of strongly increased hydrogen fluxes. Possible applications of chromium gettering are: impurity control in contemporary tokamaks; surface pumping in short pulse DT-burning devices to minimize tritium inventory, and wall conditioning of future large machines prior to operation.