Engineering Operations

1
Engineering Operations

• Outage Status
• Tile cleaning is complete
• Tentatively planning on 2 LITER operation.
  Design Review upcoming
• Shielding of HHFW/in-vessel components in
  progress
• OH bus lead upgrades to reduce error fields
• The NBI group will replace all three ion
  sources and the TIV this outage
• New bake-out system controls for NB
  conditioning during the vessel bake
• Multi-stage firing controls will be added to
  the CHI Cap Bank
• Diagnostic ground (Class 2) upgrade and addl
  class 4 power circuits.
• In-vessel measurements for a liquid Lithium
  Divertor next year
• Materials shipped to ASIPP to fabricate the new
  OH coil

2
Engineering Operations
Outage Schedule In-vessel construction
activities will continue until mid-October before
starting 1 month of diagnostic calibrations for
the upcoming run. The NB duct will be
re-installed on November 20th for a late November
pump-down and leak check. Twelve days of
bake-out will be performed in early December. NB
ion source conditioning will go on in parallel
with the bake. Cooldown, leak checking, and
addl time for diagnostic calibrations will
follow with plans to start the ISTP in the early
part of January. Plasma operations is expected
in the second half of January. An early start
this year will give us the addl time needed next
year to install the new OH coil, and possibly to
implement a liquid lithium divertor.

3
NSTX Run Assessment
Program Coordination To help in the performance
of XPs, it was suggested that a Physics Operator
be involved in the design of an XP, and that the
details of shot development are addressed in the
proposal. Writers of XPs should be encouraged
to utilize canned shots, and to provide a path
forward based on the ability to achieve certain
conditions during shot development. Session
leaders need some mechanism to better understand
the current status of diagnostic availability. A
suggestion was made to have a publication
assessment to help evaluate XPs (and run time
allocation) based on publications, including
Engineering-Technical. The appointment of an
Executive Committee for the Research Forum was
suggested to help track run time allocations from
year-to-year, and make sure that some proposals
do not get repeatedly passed over. A mid-run
assessment should be performed to look at run
time allocation, and we need to consider
allocating time to interesting XPs with
scientific risk that are not in direct support of
a declared milestone. Consider whether the ET
structure should be task or topical oriented.

4
NSTX Run Assessment
Collaborations Training expiration
notices/status should be sent to employees and
collaborators. Strive to make training materials
including tests more accessible for visitors. In
the area of communications, need to be notified
regarding any work that may impact their
equipment. Consider adding notifications on Work
Permits. The NSTX web Page needs an update. An
XP should be available on the website by day it
is run, and a Calendar/Schedule should be
maintained and include machine/diagnostic status
and run plans. Also, feedback from management on
collaborator involvement would be appreciated.

5
NSTX Run Assessment
Run Staffing/Equipment Critical diagnostics
have minimal staffing (MPTS, CHERS, etc) and need
backup support (Consider a Post-Doc). A three
week run/one week maintenance is helpful for
many, and five straight weeks of run is a
hardship. The idea of a four day run week was
suggested. Regarding equipment, the need for
additional DC current feedback devices for our
power systems was brought up, as well as the need
to address the humidity problems in the MPTS
polychromator/Laser rooms and the D-Site gallery.
The cleaning of the lower divertor tiles was
suggested, and the request was made to further
review the amount of water and oxygen introduced
during the bakeout and operations of LITER. A
suggestion was also made that cleaning of the
lower divertor tiles could be accomplished by
producing a high injector current CHI discharge,
without pulling the CHI plasma up into the
vessel. Also suggested were modifications to the
CHI system to select/stagger the firing of the
cap bank segments, and the powering of the CHI
absorber coils via the SPA supplies.