Overview of the First Operational and Physics Results from NSTX Upgrade

J. Menard, (E. Schuster), et al. (Collaboration Paper)

26th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference

Kyoto, Japan, October 17-22, 2016

Abstract

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has undergone a major upgrade, and the new NSTX Upgrade (NSTX-U) is poised to become the most capable spherical tokamak (ST) in the world program. During the past two years the Upgrade Project was completed, first plasma was achieved, diagnostic and control systems commissioned, H-Mode accessed, and the first physics research campaign carried out. NSTX-U has already surpassed NSTX-record pulse-durations and toroidal fields, and high-performance ~1MA H-mode plasmas comparable to the best of NSTX have been sustained. The new 2nd more tangential NBI is observed to significantly modify the stability of Global Alfven Eigenmodes. These and other highlights are described.