High performance discharges in the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment with liquid lithium wallsa

The first-ever successful operation of a tokamak with a large area (40% of the total plasma surface area) liquid lithium wall has been achieved in the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX). These results were obtained with a new, electron beam-based lithium evaporation system, which can deposit a lithium...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2015-05, Vol.22 (5), p.56112
Main Authors: Schmitt, J. C., Bell, R. E., Boyle, D. P., Esposti, B., Kaita, R., Kozub, T., LeBlanc, B. P., Lucia, M., Maingi, R., Majeski, R., Merino, E., Punjabi-Vinoth, S., Tchilingurian, G., Capece, A., Koel, B., Roszell, J., Biewer, T. M., Gray, T. K., Kubota, S., Beiersdorfer, P., Widmann, K., Tritz, K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Confinement
Diamagnetism
Discharge
Electron beams
Empirical analysis
Helium
Liquid lithium
Plasma physics
Surface area
Tokamak devices
Walls
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Summary:The first-ever successful operation of a tokamak with a large area (40% of the total plasma surface area) liquid lithium wall has been achieved in the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX). These results were obtained with a new, electron beam-based lithium evaporation system, which can deposit a lithium coating on the limiting wall of LTX in a five-minute period. Preliminary analyses of diamagnetic and other data for discharges operated with a liquid lithium wall indicate that confinement times increased by 10× compared to discharges with helium-dispersed solid lithium coatings. Ohmic energy confinement times with fresh lithium walls, solid and liquid, exceed several relevant empirical scaling expressions. Spectroscopic analysis of the discharges indicates that oxygen levels in the discharges limited on liquid lithium walls were significantly reduced compared to discharges limited on solid lithium walls. Tokamak operations with a full liquid lithium wall (85% of the total plasma surface area) have recently started.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.4921153