national plasma fusion research facility

National Plasma FusionResearch Facility

Annual ReportJULY-1999 TO JUNE-2000

Established and supported under the Australian Government’s Major National Research Facility Program

Design and Graphics

Dr Tim Thompson, RSPhysSE

Compiled and edited by

Ms Helen P. Hawes

National Plasma Fusion Research Facility � Annual Report ��National Plasma Fusion Research Facility � Annual Report ��National Plasma Fusion Research Facility � Annual Report ��National Plasma Fusion Research Facility � Annual Report ��National Plasma Fusion Research Facility � Annual Report ��

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CONTENTS

The National Plasma Fusion Research Facility

Located at the Plasma Research Laboratory, Research School of Physical Sciences, The Australian National University.

Canberra, Australia.

http://rsphysse.anu.edu.au/prl/H-1NF.html

Page No.

INTRODUCTION 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HIGHLIGHTS 3

I RESEARCH 4

I.1 Energy from Fusion 4

I.2 Australian Fusion Research and the H-1 National Facility 8

I.3 H-1NF Research Activities 9

II AFRG COLLABORATIONS 15

III FACILITIY AWARENESS AND PROMOTION 16

IV COLLABORATION, EDUCATION AND TRAINING 18

IV.1 Collaborative Research 18

IV.2 Education and Training 18

V CONTRIBUTION TO AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY 20

V.1 The MOSS Spectrometer 20

V.2 The Plasma Antenna 21

V.3 The WEDGE Virtual Reality Theatre 22

VI STAFFING AND ADMINISTRATION 23

VII LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 25

VIII GRANTS AND AWARDS 28

IX PROJECT PROGRESS VERSUS MILESTONES 29

X FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 30

List of Acronyms 34

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Introduction

For the last forty years, scientists and engineers around the

world have been working on using fusion reactions (like

those that power the Sun and stars) to generate electricity

(Fig1). Fusion offers the promise of generating bulk electricity

using readily available fuel—hydrogen isotopes—with low

emissions of Greenhouse gases and other pollutants. It is

also a multi-disciplinary “grand challenge” problem that

brings out the best in scientific research, technological

development and education. Development of fusion power

will spawn new industrial efforts in instrumentation and

control technologies and materials such as specialty metals.

The National Plasma Fusion Research Facility is being

developed on the base of the existing H-1NF heliac toroidal

stellarator experiment in the Research School of Physical

Sciences and Engineering in the Institute of Advanced Studies

at the Australian National University. The objectives of this

project are to provide:

• an experimental facility with which Australian scientists,

technologists and engineers can contribute to the world-

wide effort to develop fusion as a future source of

energy;

• opportunities for advanced research training for students

of science and technology;

• a platform for the development of novel technological

ideas that can be spun off for industrial use.

The development of the H-1 National Facility is supported

by an $8.7M grant over five years (1997-2001) from the

Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The Facility

is operated by the Australian Fusion Research Group (AFRG),

which acts under the auspices of the Australian Institute of

Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE). The AFRG consists

of researchers in plasma physics and fusion from the

Australian National University, the University of Canberra,

the University of Sydney, the University of Western Sydney,

the University of New England, Central Queensland

University, and Flinders University of South Australia.

Collaborative activities undertaken by these researchers are

reported in section III. International collaborations include

those with scientists from Japan, the United States, and

Europe, and are elaborated on in Section V, Collaboration,

Education and Training.

Fig1. The Sun: An operating fusion reactor


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Executive Summary Highlights

The most important areas of physics research at the H-1NF are:

• the basic operational features of plasma energy confinement

in helical-axis stellarator plasmas with strong rotational

transform (high twist of the magnetic field lines);

• transitions to modes of improved energy confinement and

reduced turbulence;

• the role of strong radial electric fields in improving energy

confinement;

• the effects of finite plasma pressure on plasma equilibrium,

stability, turbulence, and confinement.

Since H-1NF will remain a flexible university-based experiment

with research goals aimed at physics understanding rather than the

pushing of parameters, it can be used for more adventurous

fundamental research than is possible on a very large device. This

agility has already allowed H-1NF researchers to study the physics

of improved plasma confinement at much lower power than would

be needed in a larger machine.

Fig2. Professor J.H. Harris, Director, H-1 NF

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I Research

I.1 Energy from fusion

In the intensely hot interior of stars (hundreds of millions of

degrees Celsius), atoms are broken down into their

component nuclei and electrons. This fluid-like state of

matter is called plasma. For most of its life, the star is powered

by energy-producing fusion reactions, in which light nuclei

like hydrogen combine to form heavier nuclei up to that of

iron. Some of the binding energy of the nucleus is emitted

in the form of energetic particles and electromagnetic

radiation. Elements even heavier than iron are formed by

additional fusion of larger nuclei (nuclear reactions or,

specifically, nuclear fusions) in the last stage of a star’s life

and injected into interstellar space. Thus, most of the energy

and matter that we see in everyday life passed through

naturally occurring fusion reactors – the stars.

Fuels for electricity production

About one-third of the world’s energy budget is consumed

in the form of electricity. Electricity generation is presently

the fastest growing component of energy use, increasing by

approximately 20% per decade overall, with 4 to 5 times

higher growth rates in industrialising countries in Asia. The

overall increase in world demand is equivalent to a 1000

MW power station coming on line every few days, or an

amount equal to all of Australia’s generation capacity in a

month.

The present breakdown of fuels used in electricity generation

is shown in Fig 3 for the world and in Fig 4 for Australia. At

present, about 70% of world electricity production comes

from burning solid fuel (mostly coal), natural gas, and oil. In

Australia, in 1997-98, 91% of the electricity was produced

using fossil fuels, and 85.7% came from burning coal. The

fraction of electricity produced by the burning of these fossil

fuels is actually increasing, as increases in demand are being

met principally by fossil fuel generators.

The world stock of fossil fuels is finite. As reserves of relatively

clean-burning oil and natural gas dwindle during the 21st

century, energy supplies will become more vulnerable to

disruption and price increases, with likely economic

consequences. Moreover, the emission of pollutants and

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide will increase with

the burning of more fossil fuel and have adverse effects on

Oil 1.2%

Hydro

3.0%Natural Gas

8.8%

Coal

87%

1997-98

Fig 3. Primary fuel consumption required to generate the

world’s electricity supply. Data for 1995 from International

Energy Agency, available at http://www.iea.org/.

Fig 4. Primary fuel consumption required to generate

Australia’s electricity supply. Data from Australian Energy

News, December, 1999.


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global climate and human health. Recent research in global

climate trends suggests a correlation between increasing

carbon dioxide concentrations from human activity (burning

carbon fuel, agriculture, etc.) and the Earth’s surface

temperatures (Fig 5). These effects are already measurable

and are expected to increase in the 21st century.

A number of initiatives in progress in Australia to increase

the amount of generation from renewable energy resources

(solar, wind, etc.) include the Federal Government’s initiative

of increasing renewable electricity generation by an

additional two per cent by 2010. Reforestation and emissions

trading can reduce the carbon impact and buy time. In the

long term, though, the development of new means of non-

emitting, large-scale bulk electricity generation represents

a major global challenge - a task for the new millenium.

Electricity from fusion

To produce power from fusion, it is necessary to achieve

conditions such that reactions like the deuterium-tritium (D-

T) reaction shown in Fig 6 occur. The energy emitted (as a

fast neutron in the case of D-T) can be captured and used

to drive a steam turbine generator.

The main advantage of a fusion power station is that it would

produce large amounts of electricity (a gigawatt or more)

using a plentiful fuel (hydrogen isotopes from water) with

negligible emissions, and a radioactivity hazard greatly

reduced from that of conventional nuclear fission reactors.

In the case of the D-T reaction, only the tritium is radioactive.

Tritium emits only low energy radiation and has a half-life

of about twelve years, compared to thousands of years for

some strongly radiating fission fuel components (uranium

and plutonium isotopes). The tritium can be produced inside

the fusion reactor itself by capturing the fast neutron from

the fusion reaction in a blanket material such as lithium.

Moreover, the amount of fuel contained at any one time in

Energy Multiplication

About 450:1

Alpha

Particle

Deuterium Tritium

Neutron

Fig 5. Variation of global average surface temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide from 1880 to the present. Data

from the New York Times, 29 February, 2000.

Fig 6. Deuterium-tritium fusion reaction, which requires

temperatures of about 100 million degrees C.

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the reacting volume of the core plasma reactor is sufficient

for about a minute of operation, as compared to a fission

reactor, whose core contains about a year’s worth of fuel.

This greatly reduces the store of potential energy that can

be involved in an accident.

Challenging scientific and engineering problems must be

solved to make a practical fusion reactor. The first task is to

duplicate the conditions that occur in stars. Stars work

because the gravity due to their large mass confines and

heats the plasma to such high temperatures that fusion

reactions occur. To confine and heat plasmas in a “bottle”

that could fit within a power plant on Earth requires the use

of either strong magnetic fields or enormous compression

(from huge laser or particle beams) to substitute for the

gravitational compression of stars.

Toroidal magnetic confinement machines, doughnut-shaped

vacuum chambers surrounded by magnetic coils (Fig 7), offer

the most promise as fusion reactors. Two decades of

experiments in the simplest type of toroidal system, the

tokamak, have produced steady progress in achieving plasma

parameters and understanding the physical processes

involved in confining the plasma particles and energy. Figure

8 shows a plot of the plasma density, temperature, and

energy confinement time achieved in experiments around

the world, compared with what is required for ignition of

energy producing fusion reactions. In the largest

experiments, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) in the

United States and the Joint European Torus (JET) in the

United Kingdom, up to 16 MW of fusion power was

produced for approximately one second using a deuterium-

tritium gas mixture.

Despite the successes of this generation of fusion

experiments, an enormous amount of work remains to be

done in order to realise the useful generation of electric

power from fusion. The efficiency of the magnetic

confinement of plasma energy needs to be improved, both

in terms of the stability of the plasma column and reduction

of diffusive energy losses that limit the temperature. This is

necessary in order to reduce the size and

cost of fusion devices to such a degree that

they become commercially attractive. An

important variant of the toroidal

confinement scheme, the stellarator (Fig 9)

in which the toroidal plasma is twisted

helically, offers advantages in plasma control

and maintenance. Many of the new

generation of fusion experiments use

configurations from the stellarator family

(variously called advanced stellarators,

heliotrons, torsatrons, and heliacs). These

include the Large Helical Device (LHD) in

Japan, the H-1NF heliac in Australia, the TJ-

II heliac in Spain, and the Wendelstein 7-X

device which is under construction in

Germany. Table1 lists the principal world

stellarator experiments and some of their

parameters.

helical

field lines

toroidal magnetic field

poloidal

magnetic field

Lim

it of

Bre

mss

trahl

ung

Ignition

JET

JET

JT-60U

TFTRTFTR

TFTR

DIII-D

DIII-D

ASDEX

PLT

TFRTFR

T3

T10

PLT

ALC-A

TFTRFT

ALC-C JT-60

DIII-DJET

TFTR

JT-60U

Reactor Relevant Conditions

JET

JET

Central Ion Temperature Ti (M°C)

1 10 100 1000

Year

1994

1980

1970

1965

1000

100

10

1

0.1

Fusio

n P

roduct n

iτ E T

i(x10

20m

-3s.M

°C)

D-T Exp

Breakeven

Fig 7. Toroidal magnetic field geometry for fusion plasma

confinement.

Fig 8.Progress in fusion plasma parameters

since the first successful tokamak

experiments in 1970. (from Joint European

Torus Undertaking).


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Device Country Institution Operation date R(m) / a(m) Mag. field Heating(tesla) (MW)

LHD Japan Nat’l Institute forFusion Science 1998 3.9 / 0.6 4 ≥ 20

WVII-X Germany Max-Planck Institut fürPlasma Physik. 2006 5.5 / 0.5 3 ≥ 20

WVII-AS Germany Max-Planck Institut fürPlasma Physik. 1991 2.0 / 0.2 2.5 5

TJ-II Spain Nat’l Lab. MagneticConf. Fusion 1998 1.5 / 0.2 1.2 4

CHS Japan Nat’l Institute forFusion Science 1988 1.0 / 0.2 2 3

Heliotron-J Japan Kyoto University 1999 1.2 / 0.2 1.5 4

H-1NF Australia Austr. Nat’l Univ. 1992 1.0 / 0.2 0.2 0.1Aust. Fusion Res. Gr 1997 1 1

HSX USA Univ. of Wisconsin 1999 1.2 / 0.15 1.35 0.2

L-2 Russia General Phys. Inst. 1975 1.0 / 0.1 1.5 0.4

Table1. The principal world stellarator experiments and some of their parameters.

Fig 9. Cut-away diagram

of H-1NF stellarator. The

helically twisted plasma is

shown in pink, half the

toroidal magnetic coils in

grey, and the poloidal

magnetic coils in yellow and

blue.

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I.2 Australian Fusion Research andthe H-1 National Facility

Scientists in Australia have long been active in fusion

research, working on small university experiments and as

members of international teams on large experiments

overseas. The development of H-1NF offers Australian

researchers the opportunity to do experiments on a facility

that is large enough to produce hot plasmas with

temperatures of the order of 500 eV ~ 5 million degrees C.

Further Development of the H-1NF in 1999-2000

This year the H-1NF was operated for 103 days over 29

weeks, recording data for 4,600 shots. Of this,

approximately 3,100 shots over 67 days of operation were

plasma physics shots, the balance being power supply and

machine test shots. The new high-precision 12 Megawatt

magnet dual power supply was successfully tested into a

dummy load to full voltage (900 Volts) and full current

(14,000 Amps) individually. The power supply will ultimately

increase the magnetic field of the H-1NF device from its

original operating value of 0.2T to its design value of 1T. An

interactive but secure control interface was implemented

to allow operators to exploit the great flexibility of the

programmable power supplies. This allows a range of control

by operators with different levels of authorisation, so that

the facility can be used safely by a variety of operators. Tests

have demonstrated programmable constant or ramping

current into H-1NF up to 8,500A, with variations of a small

fraction of one ampére. This ensures highly accurate

magnetic geometry, avoids interference with measurement

systems, and minimises induction of current into this

inherently current-free plasma configuration. Reliability of

the motor-generator, an alternative low power source for

the magnet system, was enhanced by installation of new

switchgear and controls.

A secondary supply powers the control windings and allows

the plasma shape to be varied, under computer control,

over a much wider range than possible in conventional

stellarators or tokamaks, with the option of varying the

current during a plasma pulse. The connections between

these supplies and the five windings of the heliac are made

in a very flexible and convenient manner through a “patch

panel”. This system is capable of carrying 14,000A for two

seconds, and crucial configuration information including

total winding inductance, mutual inductance and resistance

is passed on to the power supply controller via computer.

This enables full exploitation of the wide range of magnetic

characteristics accessible to the H-1NF.

This ambitious and unique project, combining a power plant

similar to that powering a very fast train, with the precision

and flexibility of a laboratory instrument, was a product of

collaboration between H-1NF staff and a number of

Australian and International companies. These include:

Walsh & Associates, Consulting Engineers - Sydney, ABB-

Melbourne, Technocon AG - Switzerland; TMC Ltd -

Melbourne (transformer); CEGELEC - Sydney (AC-DC

converter); A-Force Switchboards - Sydney (14kA patch

panel) and HOLEC Engineering of Sydney (switchgear).

Plasma operation up to 0.5 Tesla was achieved this year,

enabling the first phase of high temperature plasma

operation in which the plasma is heated at the second

harmonic of the electron cyclotron resonance frequency.

Work on the 28GHz, 200kW electron cyclotron heating

system continued, as part of the collaboration with Kyoto

University and the Japanese National Institute for Fusion

Science (NIFS), with testing and enhancing the power

electronics, and installing the waveguide and the launching

system and associated vacuum window. Work on the ion

cyclotron range heating system included installation of DC

isolation components, and cabling with high power coaxial

cable to the launching port. The electron heating system is

now ready for first high-temperature plasma experiments.

A number of the sixteen additional vacuum ports installed

last year have been put to use, some for facility collaborators,

and others for enhanced diagnostic systems. Development

this year included the plasma density tomography system,

the optical vector tomography system, the electron cyclotron

heating system and the gas injection systems. Experiments

for facility users can be quickly connected, without vacuum

interruption, via the new gate valves if required. In late

1999 a soft X-ray camera has been installed in collaboration

with the University of Canberra, and the University of New

England fibre optic interferometer for heat flux and

deposition measurements has already been used in several

experiments. The modifications to the vessel featured the

welding of several large vacuum ports (up to 600mm) by

Cowan Engineering of Newcastle, NSW (Fig10) provided

excellent vacuum performance. The cryopump, which

allows rapid pumpdown after a vacuum break, was

remounted, and will be commissioned later in 2000.

As a result of infrastructure upgrades the Facility now has a

degree of redundancy in power, heating and vacuum

systems. This has allowed a higher level of availability this

year, and remaining upgrades to heating and launching

systems and bringing the machine up to full magnetic field,


that is one Tesla, will result in only minor interruptions to

operation over the next two years.

A number of new plasma measurement systems have been

installed or commissioned. The Modulated Optical Solid

State (MOSS) camera has been operating routinely since

early 2000 and has produced a wealth of new information

pertaining to the H-1 plasma dynamics. After some early

difficulties, the tomographic MOSS (ToMOSS) spectroscopy

system is now fully installed and will be commissioned in

September 2000. A new multi-channel spectroscopy system

for measurement of electron temperature and plasma

fluctuations is also operational while a general survey

spectrometer completes the spectroscopic diagnostic suite.

The far-infrared scanning interferometer has been

extensively upgraded this year. The 2mm sweep-frequency

interferometer (a standard diagnostic) has been relocated

to allow toroidal cross-correlation with the FIR system

measurements. A ruby-laser-based Thomson scattering

system for electron temperature measurements is also

nearing completion. Dr. Peter Feng joined the group for

laser-induced fluorescence measurements of electric fields

in the H-1 plasma edge. His appointment is supported by a

Large ARC grant held jointly with the University of Sydney.

These, and other developments, are reported more fully

below.

II.3 H-1NF Research Activities

Research activities are summarised below under the program

headings as identified in the Facility Program. H-1NF

research staff engaged on development of the individual

projects are also identified in italics at the conclusion of

each project summary.

Turbulence, transport and the radial electric field

Fluctuations and the turbulence-driven particle and energy

transport are among the most important fundamental

challenges to overcome in the physics of the magnetic

confinement of plasmas. Instabilities and turbulence

contribute to the particle and energy loss across the magnetic

field in the H-1NF heliac as well as in other toroidal plasmas.

Sheared plasma flows appear to modify the turbulence,

though the details of this modification at the microscopic

level are not yet understood. This area is a principal subject

of fusion research around the world, and a deeper

understanding is essential to developing fusion reactors.

Fig10. Some of the new large vacuum ports on the side of H-1 NF

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Recent results from H-1NF indicate that shearing only the

flow of the electron fluid in the plasma, without any

significant mass (ion) flow being present, can modify the

turbulence-driven particle transport. This conclusion makes

the prospects of achieving efficient high confinement in

stellarators more optimistic. The high “magnetic viscosity”

of stellarator plasmas impedes the bulk plasma rotation, but

this does not seem to be a problem for turbulence reduction.

Another important result is that the sign of the flow shear

(radial derivative) in the radial electric field is crucial for the

way in which the turbulent transport is modified. It has been

shown that under certain conditions the particle flux can

even be radially reversed to improve the particle

confinement. Recently this new effect has been

experimentally reproduced in the CHS torsatron in the

course of joint ANU-NIFS experiments in Japan.

(M.G. Shats, W. Solomon, H. Punzmann, D.L. Rudakov and

J.H. Harris)

Electron-cyclotron-resonance heating (ECRH)

A high power microwave source - (gyrotron) - generating

200kW at 28GHz provided by Kyoto University and the

National Institute of Fusion Science in Japan (see Fig11 )

will be used in the H-1NF heliac for plasma production

and heating at higher magnetic fields (0.5 and 1.0T). The

microwave power is absorbed by the plasma electrons which

gyrate in the strong magnetic field in resonance with the

oscillating electric field produced by the gyrotron.

Among the advantages of this heating method is good spatial

localisation of the power deposition. The heating region can

also be easily and finely controlled by tuning the magnetic

field in H-1NF. This gives a number of new experimental

opportunities to study fundamental plasma effects, including

the electron transport in H-1NF and formation of the radial

electric field.

A microwave transmission line which connects the gyrotron

with the plasma and includes the mode converters,

transforms the circularly polarised microwave radiation of

the gyrotron into a linearly polarised Gaussian beam. The

beam then propagates quasi-optically inside a corrugated

waveguide. Two reflecting polarisers supplied by Kyoto

University, Japan, finely control the polarisation of the

microwave beam. The microwave beam is then launched

into the H-1NF vacuum tank and is focussed into the plasma

using in-vacuum quasi-optical mirrors. The transmission line

has been bench-tested and will shortly be commissioned in

a high-power test on the H-1NF heliac. (http://

rsphysse.anu.edu.au/~hop112/ECRH.htm)

A new ray tracing code has also been developed to study

the propagation, absorption and the power deposition

profiles during ECRH in H-1NF. First modelling results

indicate that a single pass absorption can reach up to 90%

of the launched power. The power deposition profiles are

narrow (less than 0.2 of the plasma radius). Expected plasma

parameters with ECRH at 0.5T are as follow: electron density

ne ≤ 1018 m-3; electron temperature T

e~ 500eV; and the

energy confinement time E ~ 3ms. (M.G. Shats, H.

Punzmann, K. Nagasaki and H.B. Smith)

H-1NF data system

Remote data access

In 1999 - 2000 Java-based remote viewers for the H-1NF

magnetic field and power supply data were further

developed. These transfer some of the processing load from

the H-1NF server computer to a client’s personal computer.

Work also continued on a more comprehensive Java viewer

combining the above with a Java MDSPlus viewer from the

University of Padua, Italy. Remote access, using “Virtual

Network Computer” (VNC) remote “virtual desktop”

software, is very useful for collaborators and Facility users at

remote sites. The ability for share-use of a common desktop,

graphical displays and mouse is valuable when collaborators

are not in the same location. (B.D. Blackwell and D. Price)

The MDSPlus data system, jointly developed by several

international plasma fusion laboratories, was implemented

in 1999 as the main H-1NF database during a visit by Thomas

Fredian from the Plasma Fusion Centre at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology in the US. MDSPlus is a powerful

self-describing hierarchical database particularly suited to

time series data. The system, used in many large laboratories,

runs under OVMS, UNIX and on personal computers, has

transparent loss-less data compression, and a convenient

graphical interface. More than ten gigabytes of data in 7,000

pulses have been taken since installation. (B.D.Blackwell

and J.Howard)

Magnetic design and Optimization/Advanced Stellarators

An object orientated vacuum magnetic field line tracing code

with real time stereoscopic display of field lines and

conductor elements was implemented. Using a model of

the heliac H-1NF comprising 5000 finite filament elements,

a computational step rate of 23,000 steps/second was


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achieved integrating along magnetic field lines, with a 3D

cubic spline array size of 64MB, while maintaining a stereo

display refresh rate of 30 frames/second on a personal

computer. A perturbation calculation was added to allow

optimization of additional windings by simulated annealing

at rates faster than one iteration per second. This is

applicable to detailed error field calculations, flexibility

windings such as the helical core in the H-1 NF heliac, or in

new designs using advanced configurations. A Compact

Disk containing H-1 NF magnetic field data and the

interactive tracing program in web browser format will prove

useful to collaborators who need to understand the H-1 NF

magnetic geometry in detail. (B.D.Blackwell, B.F. McMillan,

A. Searle and H.J. Gardner)

Plasma diagnostic systems

Interferometry

Following modification in 1999 for operation at 743 microns

wavelength, the far-infrared scanning interferometer has

been operated reliably to provide plasma density profile

information (see Fig 11). The system has been tested at

high magnetic field strength, and new software developed

for automatic numerical phase demodulation and archiving

under the MDSplus data system. The acoustically noisy high-

speed air turbine for rotating the scanning grating has been

replaced with a quiet computer-controllable electric motor

drive. Plans are well-advanced for installation of additional

plasma views that will aid reliable tomographic

reconstruction of the plasma density distribution (Fig 12).

Greater viewing access to the plasma for the FIR system has

necessitated relocation of the swept frequency 2mm

interferometer to an adjacent port. (J. Howard, N. Gyaltson

and S. Collis)

Fig: 11. Gaussian beam ray trace simulation of the H-1 scanning far-infrared (FIR) interferometer. At present, both top and

bottom diagnonal views are installed and operating. The central views are presently being upgraded to obtain full plasma

coverage.

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Fig 13. False colour topographic plot showing the time evolution of the hollow ion temperature profile during an rf generated

argon discharge at low field (0.2T). This data was obtained using the 16 channel MOSS camera which views a full poloidal

plasma cross section. Note the numerous transitions between regimes of varying confinement. Combined with plasma flow

data (also obtained from the camera) and density information from the scanning FIR interferometer, it is possible to deduce

the structure of plasma internal electric field and so assess its influence on particle confinement.

Fig12. False colour topographic plot showing the interferometer phase shift (proportional to plasma density) as a function of

laser beam position in the plasma (Channel No.) and time (horizontal axis) during a resonantly heated hydrogen discharge at

0.5 T. Notice the collapse of the density profile approximately 50 ms after the commencement of the discharge. This may be

related to a build up of plasma impurities and is presently being investigated using a variety of spectroscopy diagnostics.


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Spectroscopy

This year the focus has been on both the development and

application of advanced diagnostic instrumentation based

on MOSS spectrometer. The instrument, which has been

patented by the ANU, is a modulated fixed-delay Fourier

transform spectrometer based on solid electro-optic

birefringent components. It is used for polarisation and

Doppler spectroscopy of transition radiation from neutral

atoms and from ions. Some of the earlier work on MOSS

was this year recognized with an invited presentation to the

13th biannual APS conference on high-temperature plasma

diagnostics in Tucson Arizona.

The MOSS program for 1999-2000 is summarized below.

More information about the MOSS spectrometer and related

technologies can be found at http://rsphysse.anu.edu.au/

prl/MOSS.html

Fig 14. Schematic drawing of the ToMOSS rotatable platform installed on H-1. An array of 5x11 lens-coupled optical fibres

collect and transmit the plasma light to an imaging MOSS spectrometer. This data can then be tomographically inverted to

obtain plasma emission, temperature and flow contours.

• A 16 channel MOSS camera for Doppler spectral

imaging studies of plasma dynamics and transport has been

installed and operated (Fig13). First studies of ion transport

using modulational techniques that take advantage of the

high-time resolution afforded by MOSS have been

undertaken.

• After some initial difficulties, the tomographic MOSS

system (ToMOSS), which is based on a rotatable platform

that supports an array of 55 lens-coupled optical fibres that

view the H-1 plasma, has been installed (see Fig 14). The

light signals are transported to a 2-d MOSS camera for

spectral processing prior to acquisition by the H-1 digital

CAMAC data system. The first tomographic reconstructions

are expected before the end of 2000.

• A benchtop system for Zeeman spectroscopy is being

constructed. The instrument, which will be trialled in the

Faculties, has application for sensitive and fast measurement

of current profile in large tokamaks (e.g. DIII-D) as well as

in solar astrophysics.

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• The multiple fixed delay Spread-spectrum Optical

Fourier Transform spectrometer (an extension of the MOSS

idea) has been successfully operated and first results reported

at the 13th APS Topical Conference on High Temperature

Plasma Diagnostics, Tuscon, USA. This system allows time-

resolved high-resolution study of spectral lineshape details.

The information is encoded on a number of discrete carriers

(channels) in the temporal frequency domain.

• Intra-vacuum lens-coupled optical fibres for MOSS/

SOFT study of ion distribution functions have revealed

important information pertaining to ion heating in H-1NF.

The results are being prepared for publication. (J. Howard,

F. Glass, C. Michael, A. Danielsson, B. Blackwell, J. Wach

and M. Blacksell)

Diagnostics for fluctuation & turbulence studies

Several new diagnostics have been set up on H-1NF to study

plasma instabilities and turbulence. These are the microwave

scattering diagnostic; electrostatic and magnetic probes; and

a twenty-channel correlation spectroscopy diagnostic.

A microwave scattering diagnostic is based on a four-channel

super-heterodyne detection system which measures the

microwave power scattered from plasma density fluctuations

(Fig15). A microwave power of about 50mW at frequency

Fig 15. Microwave scattering diagnostic: schematic of the geometry (left) and photograph of the quasi optical microwave

antennas inside the H-1 NF

132GHz is scattered over a range of angles determined by

the wave number of the plasma density fluctuations. This

scattered power is collected by four quasi-optical antennas

placed inside the vacuum tank of H-1NF. The diagnostic

measures the frequency spectra and the wavelength

distribution of the plasma turbulence, as well as the

propagation direction of the fluctuations in the plasma. The

system was modified in 1999 to improve its spatial resolution

(about 0.2 of the minor plasma radius for all channels. (http:/

/rsphysse.anu.edu.au/~wms112/mscat)

The correlation spectroscopy diagnostic complements the

microwave scattering in a range of the plasma turbulence

wave lengths above ~1 cm. The system consists of two linear

optical fibre arrays (10 channels each) which are imaged

into the plasma from two orthogonal views. Fluctuations in

the plasma density and electron temperature contribute to

the fluctuations in the measured intensity of the spectral

line emission. By cross-correlating chord-average line

intensities it is possible, in some cases, to obtain spatially

localised fluctuation intensity, frequency spectra and the

fluctuation correlation lengths.

(http://rsphysse.anu.edu.au/~mgs112/html/corspec.htm)

(M.G.Shats, W.Solomon, H. Punzmann and D.L. Rudakov)


��

II Australian Fusion ResearchGroup collaborations

MOSS High Voltage Driver (University of Canberra)

Consistent with efforts to use commercially available

hardware wherever possible, the MOSS drive circuitry is

based on standard stereo audio amplifiers and high voltage,

low-loss step-up transformers to excite the essentially

capacative crystal load. Important progress was made in

developing and testing a comprehensive network model that

describes the electrical behaviour of the MOSS drive

circuitry. The model has been used to tailor drive

requirements to suit specific MOSS applications

(A.D.Cheetham [UC]).

Digital Signal Processing (Central Queensland University)

The use of wavelet transforms in time-frequency analysis of

plasma diagnostic data has been investigated. The plasma

density and potential fluctuations from the Langmuir probe

diagnostics were analysed using wavelets, and their effect

on particle transport was studied. This work is led by Central

Queensland University, and funded by an AINSE travel grant.

(X-H Shi, J Boman [CQU]; M Shats)

Plasma Theory (Flinders University)

A resistive MHD stability and spectral code, SPECTOR-3D,

is being developed for 3D helical configurations to be

applicable to stellarators and, in particular, to H-1NF. The

collaboration began this year and will be funded by an AINSE

travel grant in 2000. (R. Storer [Flinders University]; H.J.

Gardner)

Soft X-ray Measurement System (University of Canberra)

Assoc Prof Andrew Cheetham spent 6 months working in

the Plasma Research Laboratory from July 99 to January 2000

while on study leave from the University of Canberra. The

housing for the 16-channel x-ray detector has been

constructed. It comprises a stainless steel cylinder with a

detachable beryllium foil covered slit at one end to provide

a light-tight view of the plasma. The other end supports the

mounting for the detector chip and its amplifiers with a light-

tight labyrinth to allow cable egress. The detector assembly

has been mounted above the plasma and slightly outboard

to afford a view along the long cross-section of the plasma.

It has been placed as close as practicable to the multi channel

interferometer to allow correlation between density and

temperature measurements. Currently 8 of the 16 channels

have been connected; these eight will view the plasma along

the central chord, 3 inboard chords and 4 outboard.

Currently external circuitry is being constructed. It is hoped

that soft x-ray measurements should be available before the

end of 2000. Measurements of the soft x-ray flux will allow

calculation of plasma pressure, the effects of impurities and

electron temperature. (B.D. Blackwell; A.D. Cheetham [UC])

Laser Induced Fluorescence (University of Sydney)

A laser induced fluorescence system is being developed for

measurement of edge electric fields in the H-1 heliac.

Following grants from both the Research Infrastructure

Equipment and Facilities (RIEF) and Australian Research

Council large grant schemes, Dr Peter Feng was recently

appointed to a three-year position with the University of

Sydney to undertake this work. This work is being

coordinated by the University of Sydney.(J. Howard; B.W.

James and P. Feng [U.Syd.])

Fibre Sensors (University of New England)

The University of New England developed novel optical fibre

sensors and bolometers for electric field and thermal

measurements in the edge and body of the H-1 NF plasma.

Their insulating nature and immunity to high voltage and

electromagnetic noise makes these devices particularly

attractive for plasma work. This year brings an important

phase of this work to a conclusion with Mr V Everett now in

the process of writing up the results for his PhD thesis.

(J.Howard, B.D.Blackwell, J.H.Harris; V.Everett, G.B.Scelsi and

G.A.Woolsey[UNE])

��

In the period 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000, the academic

staff of H-1NF undertook a broad spectrum of activities to

promote the Facility and its research endeavours across

academia, government and industry. These activities

included participation in a number of national and high-

profile international conferences. Service was given to

outside organisations, and researchers also engaged in a

number of collaborative ventures with partners from industry

and other universities at both a national and international

level. These activities are summarised below.

International Conferences

Prof J.H. Harris and Dr M.G. Shats attended the 12th

International Stellarator Workshop, Madison, Wisconsin,

27 September-1st October, 1999. Two invited papers

describing the fluctuations and turbulent transport studies

in the H-1NF heliac were presented at the Conference.

Dr G.G. Borg presented an invited paper at the 41st Meeting

of the American Physical Society, Division of Plasma

Physics, Seattle, USA, from 15-19 November, 1999.

The Fifth Australia-Japan Workshop on Plasma

Diagnostics held in Naka, Japan during December 15-17,

1999, was attended by Dr. Howard, Mr. C. Michael and Mr

W. Solomon. Five papers were presented and published in

the JAERI report: JAERI-Conf 2000-007.

Dr G. Borg attended the AP2000 Milennium Conf. On

Antennas and Propagation, 9-14 April, 2000, Davos,

Switzerland, and presented a paper describing plasma

antennas.

Dr M.G.Shats attended the 13th US Transport Task Force

Workshop, Burlington, Vermont, 25-29 April. 2000. Dr

Shats presented an invited paper describing modifications

in the turbulent transport by sheared radial electric fields in

stellarators.

Dr J. Howard attended the 13th APS Topical Conference

on High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics in Tucson, USA,

during the week June 18-23, 2000. He presented an invited

paper describing latest plasma results obtained using the

new MOSS spectrometer and camera.

Mr W. Solomon also attended the 13th APS Topical

Conference on High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics and

presented two contributed papers describing the microwave

scattering diagnostic and a new probe technique for transport

studies. Additional papers by Mr C. Michael and Mr. F.

Glass were presented on recent work with the MOSS camera

and tomographic MOSS systems.

National Conferences

Prof J.H. Harris attended the Third Conference on Nuclear

Science and Engineering in Australia, held in Canberra

from 27-28 October, 1999, and presented an invited paper.

Prof R.W. Boswell, Drs A. Degeling, T. Sheridan and C.

Charles together with Mr.P. Alexander and Mr. K.Gaff

attended the Eleventh Gaseous Electronics Meeting, held

in Armidale, NSW, from January 31 to February 2, 2000.

Five papers were presented.

Prof. J.H. Harris attended the National Innovation Summit,

Melbourne, 9-11 February, 2000, held at the Melbourne

Convention Centre. The focus of the Summit, jointly

sponsored by the Business Council of Australia and the

Commonwealth Government, was the creation of a national

partnership for enhancing Australia’s innovation

performance.

III Facility Awareness andPromotion


��

Service to Outside Organisations

Dr G.G. Borg

Editor, Czech Journal of Physics

Professor R.W. Boswell

Member International Organizing Committee of ISPC 15,

2000

Vice-President Member Comittee for the Gaseous

Electronics Meeting.

Vice-President, Vacuum Society of Australia

Professor J.H. Harris

Member, Stellarator Physics Advisory Committee, Princeton

Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, USA.

Member, Plasma Specialist Committee, AINSE

Member, Executive Committee for the International Energy

Agency Implementing Agreement for Research on

Stellarators

Member, Program Committee, 12th International Stellarator

Workshop, Madison, Wisconsin USA 1999

Chairman, 13th International Stellarator Workshop,

Canberra, Australia, 2001

Dr J. Howard

Member, Plasma Specialist Committee, AINSE

Lecturer, 4th Year Electrical Engineering , Electronic

Engineering Case Studies, University of Canberra

Dr M.G. Shats

Member, Program Committee, International Workshop, Role

of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust,

Prague.

Workshops and PromotionalActivities

The Australia/Japan/US Workshop on High Performance

Computing and Advanced Visualization in Plasma Physics

Research was held at Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia

from 1 to 4 July, 1999. This fifth Australia-Japan US

Workshop on aspects of theoretical plasma physics was

organised by Prof R.L. Dewar. The Workshop had 24

participants, comprising 12 from Australia, 8 from Japan

(including an Australian working in Japan) and 4 from the

US. Eleven of the Australian participants were funded under

the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’

Industrial Research Alliances (IRAP) program. The

participants were principally physics or computer scientists

(or both) but there were two industry representatives, one

from Millenium Audio Visual and one from Intergraph

Corporation. A feature of the workshop was the availability

of immersive three-dimensional graphics projection facilities

provided by a portable WEDGE system. The computer and

projection facilities were organised by Dr J.H. Gardner, Prof

R.W. Boswell, Dr B.D. Blackwell and Mr P. Alexander. A

Virtual Proceedings is available at http://rsphysse.anu.edu.au/

~grp105/Magn Island Proceedings/Main Page.html.

H-1NF researchers hosted a visit by a group of twelve

engineers from the Australian Nuclear Science and

Technology Organisation, Sydney, on Monday, 24th January,

2000.

��

IV.1 Collaborative research

Collaboration with Japanese stellarator researchers

continued as the largest international activity on H-1NF. A

highlight this year was the Fifth Australia-Japan Workshop

on Plasma Diagnostics held in Naka, Japan during

December 15 to 17, 1999. This meeting which was, in

part, supported by a $6,000 grant from DISR, was attended

by six Australian participants, three of whom (Dr J.Howard,

Mr. C. Michael and Mr W. Solomon) were from the Plasma

Research Laboratory. In the week prior to the workshop Dr

Howard and Mr. Michael visited the National Institute for

Fusion Science in Japan to undertake ion temperature and

flow measurements on the LHD stellarator using the MOSS

spectrometer. This visit was funded by the Japanese. It was

resolved that the Sixth Australia-Japan Workshop on

Plasma Diagnostics be held in conjunction with the 13th

International Stellarator Workshop in Australia at the H-1

National Facility site in Canberra in September, 2001. These

international workshops will attract fusion scientists from

around the world.

Dr. Seki and Dr G.G. Borg, used the ORION 2D plasma

wave code to model the RF heating process in H-1NF.

Dr M. Yokoyama, from NIFS, visited the H-1NF to begin

work on novel magnetic configurations that could be

realised in the H-1NF by changing the magnetic coil

currents.

Dr. M.G. Shats has started a new collaborative project with

the Stellarator Group of the University of Wisconsin,

Madison, Wisconsin (USA) on the comparative analysis of

the plasma confinement in stellarators. This project is partly

supported by a $5,200 travel grant from the Australian

Academy of Science. The collaboration will allow for the

basic plasma confinement characteristics in the H-1 NF

heliac and in the newly built Helically Symmetric Experiment

(Madison) to be compared.

Dr Howard visited the University of New England during

May 17 and 18, 2000 for discussions with Prof. Woolsey

and Mr V. Everett on the results of optical-fibre-based probe

measurements on H-1NF.

Advanced Stellarator Configurations

The Plasma Research Laboratory, through its recent

collaborative agreement with the Princeton Plasma

Physics Laboratory (PPPL), contributed to the conceptual

design of the “Quasi-Axisymmetric Stellarator”. This is a

new experiment by a consortium of plasma researchers

in the United States to develop the BLINE real-time

visualization and optimization code for magnetic

confinement systems. (B.D. Blackwell, J.H. Harris)

Remote Data Access

Various schemes for remote access to plasma data were

tested to facilitate national and international

collaborations. Initial experiments with Java based data

viewers were performed in collaboration with the MIT

Plasma Fusion Centre, demonstrating the advantages of

local processing and replotting when the data source is

very remote. Remote access to data from the TJ-II

heliac in Spain was demonstrated using Virtual Network

Computer (VNC) remote “virtual desktop” software

developed by Olivetti, (UK). This approach processes

data remotely, and transmits only the (compressed)

graphical output. The ability of both local and remote

users to simultaneously work on the same VNC

desktop proved very useful in recent collaborations with

the University of New England on optical fibre plasma

probes. (B.D. Blackwell)

IV.2 Education and Training

The Australian Fusion Research Group meets regularly to

coordinate a wide range of collaborative activities on H-

1NF involving both professional staff and postgraduate

students at universities around Australia. The Group is

currently planning an intensive undergraduate level course

in Plasma Physics in order to expose potential graduate

students to the field. This course is deemed necessary as

there are only three universities in Australia that teach formal

courses in plasma physics. The course will run for the first

time in 2000.

IV Collaboration, Educationand Training


�

The H-1 National Facility also serves as a focus for a large

variety of research projects for both postgraduate and

undergraduate students whose projects were supervised by

academic staff. The students work as integral members of

the research team. Listed below are the students who worked

on projects at the H-1NF during 1999-2000.

Postgraduate Students

Mr. S. Collis, BSc USyd

Mr. V. Everett, BSc UNE

Mr. K. Gaff, BSc Mon. (jointly with the Department of Optical

Sciences, Australian National University)

Mr. F. Glass, BSc Qld

Mr. R. Hawkins, BE BIT

Mr. C. Michael, BSc ANU

Mr. H. Punzmann, BSc Polytech Regensburg, Germany

Mr. W. Solomon, BSc Qld

Undergraduate Scholars

Mr M. Anich, Weingarten Fachhochschule, Germany

Mr E. Baillot, University of Orléans, France

Mr. M. Becker, Kempten Fachhochschule, Germany

Mr. O. Gall, Ecole Polytechnique, Cedex, France

Mr. B. Kwan, Australian National University

Mr. J. Kircher, Weingarten Fachhochschule, Germany

Mr R. Kumar, University of Western Sydney

Mr A. Last, Australian National University

Mr P. Linardakis, Australian National University

Mr A. Lusso, Australian National University

Mr B. McMillan, University of Melbourne

Mr L. Robinson, Australian National University

Mr. P. Rochon, Université d’Orleans, France

Mr A. Searle, Australian National University

Mr H.J. Tait, Australian National University

Mr. D. Ward, University of Newcastle

Mr. D. Wotton, Australian National University

��

V Contribution to AustralianIndustry

V.1 The MOSS spectrometer

The Modulated Solid-State Spectrometer (MOSS) is a

compact realisation of a Fourier-transform spectrometer that

was developed and patented by Dr. John Howard in 1997

as part of the H-1NF project. It allows the measurement of

temperatures and flows in radiating media such as plasmas

with high light efficiency and speed. Its first applications

have been in the diagnosis of fusion plasmas in H-1NF, the

CDX-U experiment at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory,

and in the LHD experiment at the National Institute of Fusion

Science (NIFS) in Japan. An early model was commercialised

with Australian Scientific Instruments Pty. Ltd. of Canberra

and sold to Princeton. This year, the use of a compact multi-

channel MOSS camera for two-dimensional time-resolved

spectral imaging was demonstrated. To minimize costs,

commercially available camera lenses and polarizers and

standard optical mating components have been used

wherever possible. In coming years, possible applications

of MOSS technologies to other imaging problems in

medicine and materials will be explored.

Fig 16. Photograph showing the MOSS camera installed on H-1


��

Fig17.The HF plasma antenna concept demonstrator

delivered to the DSTO

Fig18.The plasma microwave lens in action

V.2 The plasma antenna

In the period under review, the first stage of a contract offered

for tender by the Defence Science and Technology

Organisation (DSTO), which was won by the Plasma

Research Laboratory, was successfully completed. A second

stage DSTO contract to develop a concept demonstrator

HF plasma antenna was initiated, and this concept

demonstrator was delivered in March 2000

Six Engineering students from the Australian National

University ’s Faculty of Engineering and Information

Technology (FEIT), completed their honours projects on the

plasma antenna at the end of 1999. These projects were

all related to various aspects of the plasma antenna.

A further contract with DSTO to develop a programmable

microwave plasma lens was also initiated in 1999, and has

been the subject of an engineering honours thesis for Mr.

Peter Linardakis. This contract was completed in 2000 and

a concept demonstrator, capable of steering X–W band

microwaves, has been developed.

A DETYA Year 2000 Strategic Partnerships with Industry -

Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT) grant was won by

the Plasma Research Laboratory and will support a PhD

student to undertake the further development of the HF

plasma antenna in collaboration with CEA Technologies ACT

and NEOLITE NEON Sydney.

MOTOROLA-USA has awarded the Plasma Research

Laboratory a continuing contract of $49,500 to develop fast

plasma switches for mobile phones. This grant will support

a PhD student, Mr. Peter Linardakis in the first instance

��

Fig19. Professor Rod Boswell and Dr Henry Gardner with the WEDGE

V.3 The WEDGE virtual realitytheatre

The need to visualise the complex geometry of plasma

confinement in three-dimensions led Prof. R. Boswell and

Dr. H. Gardner to conceive of the WEDGE, a two-wall virtual

reality theatre that uses simplicity in design coupled with

personal computer technology to achieve stereoscopic data

visualisation at a fraction of the cost of existing commercial

systems. (Fig19)

Demonstration systems were developed in collaboration with

the ANU Supercomputing Facility, and a large-scale system

was sold to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney where it is

on public display. An even larger system has now been

installed in the new CSIRO Discovery Centre at the Plant

Sciences building in Canberra. A system will soon also be

operational in the Australian Defence Forces Academy,

Canberra. Applications to virtual engineering design and data

analysis are also being developed in the H-1NF.


��

VI.1 Management Structure of theH-1 National Facility

The management structure of the Facility is shown in Fig19.

This structure involves three major organisations DISR, AINSE

and the ANU all of which have input to the Board. The

Board and the Steering and Operations Committees have

direct impact on the Facility.

The role of AINSE through its Plasma Specialist Committee

lies mainly in the allocation of travel funds to, and

coordination of, the AFRG collaborations. The AFRG has

input at all levels as the collaboration with these external

bodies is crucial to the objectives and success of the project.

The Steering Committee plans the various programs:

construction, installation, commissioning and experiments.

The Operations Committee is more or less the shop floor

organisation of the actual experimental work.

The Board guides the operation of the Facility as a whole.

As shown in Table 2, the Board is comprised almost entirely

of ex officio members from the institutions with an interest

in the operation of the Facility.

VI.2 Membership of the H-1NFBoard

The present membership of the H-1NF Board includes

representatives of Australian research institutions,

government, industry, and overseas fusion research

laboratories. The H-1NF Board meets two or three times

per year at the ANU. (Fig21)

VI Staffing and Administration

Fig20. The management structure of the Facility

Fig21. Membership of the H-1NF Board

��

VI.3 Australian Fusion ResearchGroup

Academic Staff

Prof. J.H. Harris (ANU), Director, H-1NF

Dr. B.D. Blackwell, (ANU), H-1NF Facility Manager

A/Prof. A.D. Cheetham. University of Canberra, Chairman,

AFRG

Dr. J. Howard, (ANU) H-1NF Diagnostics Coordinator

Dr. G.G. Borg, (ANU)

Prof. R.W. Boswell, (ANU)

Prof. R. Castillo, University of Western Sydney

Dr. C. Charles, (ANUTECH)

A/Prof. R. Cross, University of Sydney

Prof. R.L. Dewar, (ANU)

Dr. H.J. Gardner, (ANU)

A/Prof. B. James, University of Sydney

Dr. D. Miljak, University of Sydney

Dr. M. Shats, (ANU)

Dr. X-H. Shi, University of Central Queensland

A/Prof. R. Storer, Flinders University

Dr. G.B. Warr,(ANUTECH)

Prof. G. Woolsey, University of New England

Technical Staff

Mr. G.C.J. Davies, Head Technical Officer

Mr. P. Alexander

Mr. R. Davies

Mr. R.J. Kimlin

Mr. J. Wach

Mr. C. Costa, AFRG Technical Officer

General Staff

Ms. H.P. Hawes (ANU), Departmental Administrator

VI.4 Visiting Researchers

Mr. T. Fredian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Dr. K. Kawahata, National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan

Dr. K. Nagasaki, Kyoto University, Japan

Dr. T. Seki, National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan

Prof. K. Toi, National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan

Prof. T. Watari, National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan

Dr. M. Yokoyama, National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan

VI.5 H-1 NF Board

Chair

Dr J. Baker, OBE FTSE

Scientific Secretary, AINSE

Dr. D. Mather

Minutes Secretary

Ms H P Hawes

AFRG Chair

Prof A D Cheetham

Deputy VC, ANU

Prof. J. Richards, FIREE, FIEAust FIEEE

AINSE President

Prof. R. Macdonald, FAIP

Director, IAS, ANU

Prof. F. Jackson, FAHA

ARC Representative

Prof. J. Piper, FOSA FAIP

H-1NF Director

Professor J H Harris, FAPS

Overseas Fusion Reps.

Prof. A Iiyoshi & Prof. Fujiwara

Director, RSPhysSE, ANU

Prof. E Weigold, FAA FTSE FAPS FAIP

Senior Res. Admin.

Prof. L. Cram, FAIP FRAS

Industry Representative

Mr. A. Sproule

Senior Fusion Scientists

Em. Prof. S. M. Hamberger, FAIP

Em. Prof. M. H. Brennan, AO FAIP FAA

Dr. R. Gammon, FAIE FAIM


��

Legend

# Former member of the Research School of Physical

Sciences

*Not a member of ANU

1999 - Refereed Journals

Borg, G.G., Harris, J.H., Miljak, D.# and Martin, N.M.*

The Application of Plasma Columns to Radiofrequency

Antennas

Applied Physics Letters 74 22 (1999) 3272-3274.

Borg, G.G., Kamenski, I.V. #Harris, J.H., Miljak, D.G. # and

Martin, N.M.*

Plasma Antenna - Now You See It...Now you Don’t

ARAAA News 4 (1999) 1-4.

Howard, J.

Optical Coherence-Based Techniques for Motional Stark Effect

Measurements of Magnetic Field Pitch Angle

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 41 (1999) 271-284.

Howard, J.

MOSS Spectrometer Applications in Plasma Diagnostics

Review of Scientific Instruments 70 (1999) 368-371.

Reiman, A.*, Fu, G.*, Hirshman, S.*, Ku, L.*, Monticello,

D.*, Mynick, H.*, Redi, M.*, Spong, D.*, Zarnstorff, M.*,

Blackwell, B.D., Boozer, A.*, Brooks, A.*, Cooper, W.A.,

Drevlak, M., Goldston, R.*, Harris, J.H., Isaev, M.*, Kessel,

C.*, Lin, Z.*, Lyon, J.F.*, Merkel, P.*, Mikhailov, M.*,

Miner,W.*, Nakajima, N.*, Neilson, G.*, Nührenberg, C.*,

Okamoto, M.*, Pomphrey, N.*, Reiersen,W.*, Sanchez, R.*,

Schmidt,J.*, Subbotin, A.*, Valanju, P.*, Watanabe, K.Y.*

and White, R.*

Physics Design of a High-ß Quasi-Axisymmetric Stellarator

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 41 (1999) B273-

B283.

Rudakov, ,D.L.#, Shats, M.G., Boswell, R.W., Charles , C.

and Howard, J.

Overview of Probe Diagnostics on the H-1 Heliac


Schneider, D.A.#, Borg, G.G. and Kamenski, I.V.#

Measurements and Code Comparison of Wave Dispersion

and Antenna Radiation Resistance for Helicon Waves in a

High Density Cylindrical Plasma Source

Physics of Plasmas 6 (1999) 703-712.

Shats, M.G.

Effect of the Radial Electric Field on the Fluctuation-Produced

Transport in the H-1 Heliac

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 41 11 (1999) 1357-

1370.

Tanaka, K.*, Kawahata, K.*, Ejiri, A.*, CHS Group*, Howard,

J. and Okajima, S.*

Faraday Rotation Measurements on Compact Helical System

by Using a Phase Sensitive Heterodyne Polarimeter


2000 - Refereed Journals

Borg, G.G., Harris, J.H, Martin, N.M.*, Thorncraft ,D.,

Milliken.R.* , Miljak, D.G.#, Kwan, B., Ng, T. and Kircher,J.

Plasmas as Antennas – Theory, Experiment and Applications

Physics of Plasmas 7(5) (2000) 2198-2202.

Shats, M.G., Toi, K.*, Ohkuni, K.*, Yoshimura, Y.*, Osakabe,

M.*, Matsunaga, G.*, Isobe, M.*, Nishimura, S.*, Okamura,

S.*, Matsuoka, K.* and CHS Group.*

Inward Turbulent Transport Produced by Positively Sheared

Radial Electric Field in Stellarators

Physical Review Letters 84 26 (2000) 6042-6045.

1999-2000 - InternationalConference Proceedings

Harris, J.H.

Status and Plans for the H-1 Heliac Experiment

12th International Stellarator Workshop, Madison,

Wisconsin, 27 September to October 1, 1999.

VII List of Publications

��

Shats, M.G.

Fluctuations and Turbulent Transport Studies in the H-1 Heliac

12th International Stellarator Workshop, Madison,

Wisconsin, 27 September to October 1, 1999.

Borg,G.G.,.Harris,J.H., Martin, N.M.*, Thorncraft, D.+,

Milliken, R.*, Miljak,, D.G.#, Kwan, B. , Ng, T. and Kircher,

J.

Plasmas as Antennas – Theory, Experiment and Applications

The 41st Meeting of the American Physical Society, Division

of Plasma Physics, Seattle, USA, 15-19 November, 1999.

Howard, J.

H-1NF Program and Diagnostic Systems

The Fifth Japan-Australia Diagnostics Workshop, Naka

Japan, 15-17 December, 1999

JAERI-CONF 2000-007 p1c

Howard, J., Glass, F., Michael, C. and Cheetham. A.D.

Doppler Coherence Spectroscopy at H-1NF.



JAERI-CONF 2000-007 p10-20

Michael, C. and Howard. J.

MOSS Spectroscopic Camera for Imaging Time-Resolved

Plasma Species Temperature and Flow Speed



JAERI-CONF 2000-007 p21-28

Howard, J..

Polarization Spectroscopy Using Optical Coherence-Based

Techniques



JAERI-CONF 2000-007 p100-106

Cheetham, A.D., Michael, C. and Howard, J.

Drive Circuitry for the MOSS Spectrometer

The Fifth Australia-Japan Workshop on Plasma

Diagnostics Naka, Japan December 15-17,1999

JAERI-CONF 2000-007, p111-136.

Borg,G.G., Harris,J.H, Martin,N.M.*, Thorncraft,D.,

Milliken,R.*,.Miljak, D.G.#., Kwan,B., Ng, T. and Kircher, J.

An Investigation of the Properties and Applications of Plasma

Antennas

The AP2000 Milennium Conf. On Antennas and

Propagation, 9-14 April, Davos, Switzerland, 2000, Paper

0271.

Solomon, W. M., Shats, M.G., Korneev, D.* and Nagasaki,

K.*

Collective Microwave Scattering Diagnostic On The H-1

Heliac

13th APS Topical Conference on High Temperature Plasma

Diagnostics, Tucson, USA, June 18-23, 2000.

Solomon , W.M. and Shats, M. G.

Fluctuation Studies Using Combined Mach/Triple Probe

13th APS Topical Conference on High Temperature Plasma

Diagnostics, Tucson, USA, June 18-23, 2000.

Shats M.G.

Fluctuations and Turbulent Transport Studies in the H-1 Heliac

13th US Transport Task Force Workshop, Burlington,

Vermont, 25-29 April. 2000.

Shats M.G.

Comparisons of the Modifications in the Turbulent Transport

by Sheared Radial Electric Fields in Stellarators

13th US Transport Task Force Workshop, Burlington,

Vermont, 25-29 April. 2000.

1999-2000 National ConferenceProceedings

Charles, C., Degeling, A.#, Sheridan, T.#, Harris, J.H.,

Lieberman,M.* and Boswell,R.W.

Absolute Measurements of rf Fields Using a Retarding Field

Energy Analyser

Eleventh Gaseous Electronics Meeting, Armidale, NSW

January 31 to February 2, 2000

Gardner, H.J.

Object Technology for Scientific Computing - the Promise

and the Practise



Research, Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia, 1-4 July,

1999.

Boswell, R.W.

Progress with the WEDGE Interactive Virtual Reality system




1999.


��

Blackwell, B.D.

Use of Web-based 3D VIsualization Resources for Complex

Problems in Plasma Physics



Research, Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia , 1-4 July,

1999.

Charles, C.

Recent Results on Radial and Axial RFEA Studies of Particle

Distribution Functions and their Visualisation




1999.

Dewar, R.L.

Visualisation Techniques in Theoretical Plasma Physics



Research, Magnetic Island, Queenslaßnd, Australia, 1-4 July,

1999.

Harris, J.H.

Fusion Energty for the 21st Century

Third Conference on Nuclear Science and Engineering

in Australia, Canberra, 27-28 October, 1999.

��

VIII 1999 - 2000GRANTS AND AWARDS

* Grant for support of a Technical Officer attached to National Plasma Fusion Project.

Table 2

Honours and Awards

Prof. Jeffrey Harris was elected as a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,USA, and a

Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics

Researcher/s Organisation Title of Project Source ofGrant

Periodof Award

GrantAmount

$

Prof J. Harris et al. ANU National PlasmaFusion ResearchFacility

DIST Dec1995Dec 2001 8,700,000

Prof J. Harris ANU *Plasma FusionNational ResearchFacility

UC May 1996 -Dec 1999 30,000


UCQ May 1996 -Dec 1999 30,000


Univ. Syd May 1996 -Dec 1999 45,000

Prof J. HarrisDr G. BorgDr N. Martin

ANUDSTO

Production of aDemonstrationPlasma Antenna

DSTO Jan - Dec 1999 37,000

Dr. H.J. Gardner, ProfR.W.BoswellDr R. Gingold

ANU Software LicenceAgreementPowerhouse

Museum ofApplied Arts

Sciences

June 1999-June 2000 25,000

Dr M. G.Shats ANU Comparative studiesin the stellaratortransport

TheAustralian

Academy ofSciences

2000 5,225

A/Prof B. JamesDr. J. HowardProf. S.Buckman

UsydANUANU

LIF Measurement ofPlasma E Field

ARC LargeGrant

2000-02 250,000

Dr. J. Howard ANU Support forAustralia-JapanWorkshop

DISR 1999 6,000

Total 9,023,225


�

Milestone Plan Revised Achieved Status/Progress

Magnet Power Supply

0.5 Tesla 5-1998 2-1999 achieved

1.0 Tesla 4-2000 6-2001 power supply to full current(11/99)

ECH Plasma Heating

100 kW into dummy load 3-1998 6-1997 ahead

150 kW into plasma 6-1998 10-2000 waveguide and window 5/2000

ICH Plasma Heating

Demonstrate rf heating at low field (0.1T) 9-1997 9-1997 on time

100 kW into plasma 10-1998 6-1998 ahead

200 kW into plasma 6-1999 3-2001 transmitter to full power 12/98

High Power Heating upgrade

Decide balance of ECH/ICH 6-1999 6-2001 depends on ECH/ICH above

Diagnostics

Solid state spectrometer for flow andtemperature profiles, operational

7-1997 7-1997 on time

Multiple retarding field energy analyzeroperational

8-1997 3-2001 8/97 single chan

2D tomographic density interferometeroperational

4-1998 4-1998 on time

Multiview Thomson scattering operational 9-1998 10-2000 part installed 7/2000

2D visible Doppler spectroscopy systemoperational

1-1999 9-2000 installed 9/1999

Multiview Soft X-ray diagnostic operational 3-1999 10-2000 installed 9/1999

Data system

Real time experimental participationdemonstrated from remote sites—

7-1998 6-1998 ahead

IX PROJECT PROGRESSVERSUS MILESTONES

Project Milestones

Table 4 lists the 1999–2000 project milestones taken from the MNRF contract between DISR and the ANU. (see page 6)

The earlier date was based on the anticipated use of an unregulated power supply in advance of installation of the

regulated supply. It was ultimately decided to shift effort to the design and procurement of the fully regulated supply to

achieve regulated operation sooner.

Table 3. Milestone completion status for H-1NF development.

��

X FINANCIAL STATEMENTSThe financial statements which follow are the quarterly cash flow reports for the periods ending 30th September, 1999, 31st

December, 1999, 31st March, 2000 and 30th June 2000. The audited report for the 1999-2000 financial year was not

available at the time of printing this Annual Report.

Quarterly Report Ending September 1999


��

Quarterly Report Ending December 1999

��

Quarterly Report Ending March 2000


��

Quarterly Report Ending June 2000

��

List of Acronyms

ABC Australian Broadcasting Commission

AFRG Australian Fusion Research Group

ANU Australian National University

AINSE Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering

CDX-U Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade

CQU Central Queensland University

DC Direct Current

DISR Department of Industry, Science and Resources

DSTO Defence Science and Technology Organisation

DT Deuterium-Tritium

ECH Electron Cyclotron Heating

ECRH Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating

HARE Helicon Activated Reactive Etching

H-1NF Heliac 1 National Facility

IAS Institute of Advanced Science

JET Joint European Torus

LCD Liquid Crystal Display

LHD Large Helical Device

MDS Model Data System

MHD Magneto-hydrodynamic

MOSS Modulated Optical Solid State

NIFS National Institute for Fusion Science

OVMS Open Virtual Machine Operating System

ORION Oak Ridge Ion

PIC Particle-in-Cell

PC Personal Computer

RF Radio-frequency

RIEFP Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Scheme

SOFT Spread-Spectrum Optical Fourier Transform

SPIRT Strategic Partnerships with Industry - Research and Training Scheme

SP3 Space and Plasma Processing

TFTR Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

TJ-II Torus de la Junta de l’Energia Nuclear

UC University of Canberra

VNC Virtual Network Computer

national plasma fusion research facility

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