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Status of the Levitated Dipole Experiment
| Author: | Garnier D.T. |
| Coauthor: | V.Fishman, A.K.Hansen, J.Kesner, M.E.Mauel, J.Minervini, P.Michael, A. Zhukovsky, A.Boxer, J.Ellswor |
| Institution : | Columbia University |
| Abstract text: | The Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX), a joint effort of between Columbia University and MIT, is a world-class superconducting experiment designed to investigate the physics of dipole confinement. LDX, which is nearing first operations, consists of a 0.7 ton, 1.2 MA, 4 T magnet levitated within a 5 m diameter vacuum vessel. The floating coil (F-coil), with its advanced Nb3Sn superconductor and state-of-the-art cryostat will be cooled by a cryogenic heat exchanger and then charged inductively by a 9 MJ NbTi superconducting charging coil. After release by a mechanical launcher-catcher device, the F-coil will be magnetically supported by a high-T_c superconducting levitation coil. Floating coil motion will be diagnosed with a 8 laser optical system and levitation will be continuously feedback stabilized by a digital control computer over the several hour long run day. During the initial experimental campaigns, the plasma will be formed and heated using multiple frequency electron cyclotron heating.
Construction of all magnet systems is now complete. The advanced floating coil cryostat, which limits the heat load from the plasma to the ~ 5K cold mass, has undergone it\'s final close out welds. A cold test of the cryostat will commence shortly.
The 8-ton, 4 MA charging coil, arrived in September, 2003 at MIT from its manufacturer, the SINTEZ Efremov Institute in St.~Petersburg, Russia. The coil has been installed and tested in its operating position under the LDX vacuum chamber. Finally, fusion\'s first high-temperature superconducting magnet, the LDX levitation coil, is complete, fully tested and installed at MIT.
The design, fabrication and testing of these superconducting magnets, as well as the handling systems that permit the floating coil to be charged and moved into plasma chamber will be discussed. The initial plasma and diagnostic systems will be also be presented.
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