Status and near-term plans for DIII-D

The DIII-D tokamak at GA Technologies began plasma operation in February of 1986 and is dedicated to the study of highly non-circular plasmas. High beta operation with enhanced energy confinement is paramount among the goals of the DIII-D research program. Commissioning of the device and facility has verified the design capability including coil and vessel loading, volt-second consumption, bakeout temperature, vessel armor, and neutral beamline thermal integrity and control systems performance. Initial experimental results demonstrate the DIII-D is capable of attaining high confinement (H-mode) discharges in a divertor configuration using modest neutral beam heating or ECH. Record values of I/sub p/aB/sub T/ have been achieved with ohmic heating as a first step toward operation at high values of toroidal beta and record values of beta have been achieved using neutral beam heating. This paper summarizes results to date and gives the near term plans for the facility. 13 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.