USA - FRC

FUSION RESEARCH CENTER
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Robert Lee Moore Hall, Austin, Texas 78712-1068

Telephone: +1 512 471 4698
Telefax: +1 512 471 8865
E-mail: fusion@www.frc.utexas.edu
URL:   http://www.frc.utexas.edu

Director:

Gentle, Kenneth W.

Experimental Group

Gentle, Kenneth W. (Director)
Rowan, William L. (Assoc. Director)
Austin, Max E.
Bengtson, Roger D.

Bravenec, Ronald V.
Eisner, Edward C.
Hallock, Gary
He, Huang

Patterson, Donald M.
Phillips, Perry E.

Theoretical Group

Gentle, Kenneth W. (Director)
Ross, David W. (Assoc. Director)

Miner, William H.
Valanju, Prashant

Wiley, James C.

Research activities:
The Fusion Research Center conducts experiments and operates diagnostics on Alcator C-MOD and DIII-D in applied tokamak physics under grants from US DOE. The major thrust of these experiments is on particle and thermal transport with emphasis on understanding the role of turbulence. Theory/experiment comparison is intended as a major part of the work on both devices.

A new device for the study of `drift-wave' turbulence, which is called a helimac, is now under construction at the Fusion Research Center. This experiment provides a simplified magnetic geometry, closely related to the curved, sheared slab model, often used in numerical studies, that provides a good realization of magnetized turbulence, allows direct control of the key experimental parameters including flows, and will have the capability for measuring all important plasma parameters.

There is an ongoing collaboration with PPPL and ORNL in the design of magnetic field coils for compact stellarators. Our new coil design techniques have been successfully applied to two proposed devices: the Quasi-axisymmetric NCSX and the Quasi-poloidal QPS, and to reactor scalability studies for advanced stellarator concepts.

The physics of ion thrusters is another area of experimental and theoretical interest, which is under the sponsorship of NASA. In addition, there is an active collaborative program, with the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, China, on plasma diagnostics and long pulse tokamak physics.