The TMX-U magnet set has incorporated new axisymmetric throttle coils and fan-reversing transition magnets. This new magnet geometry, which will allow for the experimental verification of new physics issues related to axicell tandem mirrors, encompasses both engineering and physics considerations. Engineering considerations include structural integrity plus neutral beam and diagnostic access. Physics issues include the stability and radial transport of the confined plasma. We have calculated the magnetic field using the magnetic field code, EFFI, and the plasma stability and surface curvatures using the plasma stability code, TEBASCO. Our magnet design allows the axisymmetric throttle mirror to be varied from the end-cell mirror value of 2 to a peak of 6 T.

We will review the performance of the Advanced Test Accelerator, a 50 MeV, 10 KA induction linac. The discussion will cover the operation of the plasma cathode electron source, beam transport throughout the accelerator, and transverse instabilities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the beam breakup instability and on the methods used to minimize it. These include a program of design changes that lead to an order of magnitude reduction in the Q's of the accelerator cavity modes and optimization of the transport tune.

Progress in a two year study of a 1200 MWe commercial tandem mirror reactor (MARS - Mirror Advanced Reactor Study) has reached the point where major reactor system technologies are identified. New design features of the magnets, blankets, plug heating systems and direct converter are described. With the innovation of radial drift pumping to maintain low plug density, reactor recirculating power fraction is reduced to 20%. Dominance of radial ion and impurity losses into the halo permits gridless, circular direct converters to be dramatically reduced in size. Comparisons of MARS with the Starfire tokamak design are made.

COBRA, in general, performs a thermal-hydraulic analysis of an actual pin bundle by subdividing the bundle cross-section into coolant subchannels, pin sectors, duct wall sectors. Its calculation includes heat convected axially upward through coolant mass flow, heat flow between pin sectors and adjoining subchannels, and heat and mass flow between coolant subchannels. COBRA-3M is a version of COBRA built for LMFBR applications, that includes a sophisticated thermal model of fuel pins and duct wall. COBRA-3M that can explicitly model a wider variety of pin bundle configurations than 3M would allow and includes significant improvements to its thermal modeling. COBRA-PI is currently being used for thermal-hydraulic analysis of hypothetical LMFBR accident transients in both power and flow. Pin bundles currently being analyzed explicitly range from 7 to 37 pins of axial lengths ranging from approx. 0.3-2.0 meters.

The nuclear performance of a candidate fission-suppressed, U233-producing blanket is assessed. It is predicted to have a breeding ratio (fusile + fissile) of 1.68 and produce U233 at a rate of 8030 kg/year from 3140 MW of DT fusion and a blanket coverage of 96%. Blanket energy multiplication is estimated to vary between 1.3 and 2.0 as the U233/Th232 ratio varies between 0 and 0.5%. Heterogeneous effects in the blanket's pebble-bed configuration were found to be important and more detailed analysis is needed to more accurately predict Li6 content required and U233 fission power versus U233 content.

In order to protect a set of inductively coupled superconducting magnets, it is necessary to locate and measure normal zone voltages that are small compared with the mutual and self-induced voltages. The method described in this paper uses two sets of voltage measurements to locate and measure one or more normal zones in any number of coupled coils. One set of voltages is the outputs of bridges that balance out the self-induced voltages. The other set of voltages can be the voltages across the coils, although alternatives are possible. The two sets of equations form a single combined set of equations. Each normal zone location or combination of normal zones has a set of these combined equations associated with it. It is demonstrated that the normal zone can be located and the correct set chosen, allowing determination of the size of the normal zone. Only a few operations take place in a working detector: multiplication of a constant, addition, and simple decision-making. In many cases the detector for each coil, although weakly linked to the other detectors, can be considered to be independent.

The Electromagnetic Fluctuations (EMF) diagnostic will be used to monitor ion fluctuations which could be unstable in MFTF-B. Each probe assembly includes a high impedance electrostatic probe to measure potential fluctuations, and a group of nested, single turn loops to measure magnetic fluctuations in three directions. Eventually, more probes and loops will be added to each probe assembly for making more detailed measurements. The sensors must lie physically close to the plasma edge and are radially positionable. Also, probes at separate axial locations can be positioned to connect along the same magnetic field line. These probes are similar in concept to the rf probes used on TMX, but the high thermal load for 30-second shots on MFTF-B requires a water-cooled design along with temperature monitors. Each signal channel has a bandwidth of .001 to 150 MHz and is monitored by up to four different data channels which obtain amplitude and frequency information. This paper describes the EMF diagnostic and presents the detailed mechanical and electrical designs.

The proposed 4 GeV Electron Microtron (GEM) is designed to fill the existing buildings left vacant by the demise of the Zero Gradient Synchrotron (ZGS) accelerator. One of the six large dipole magnets is shown as well as the first 10 electron orbits. A 3-orbit prototype magnet has been built. The stepped edge of the magnet is to keep the beam exiting perpendicular to the pole. The end guards that wrap around the main coils are joined together by the 3 shield plates. The auxiliary coils are needed to keep the end guards and shield plates from saturating. A 0.3 cm Purcell filter air gap exists between the pole and the yoke. Can anyone question this being a truly three-dimensional magnetostatic problem. The computer program TOSCA, developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by the Computing Applications Group, was used to calculate this magnet and the results have been compared with measurements.

This paper describes the pulse power systems that are used in these lasers; the status and the operating experiences. The pulsed power system for the Nova Laser is comprised of several distinct technology areas. The large capacitor banks for driving flashlamps that excite the laser glass is one area, the fast pulsers that drive pockels cell shutters is another area, and the contol system for the pulsed power is a third. This paper discusses the capacitor banks and control systems.

The Supervisory Control and Diagnostic System for the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF) has been designed as an event driven system. To this end we have designed a data base notification facility in which a task can request that it be loaded and started whenever an element in the data base is changed beyond some user defined range. Our initial implementation of the notify facility exhibited marginal response times whenever a data base table with a large number of outstanding notifies was written into. In this paper we discuss the sources of the slow response and describe in detail a new structure for the list of notifies which minimizes search time resulting in significantly faster response.

The IFR is a well-known stable, low pressure (0.10 to 0.120 torr in air) propagation window. Secondary electrons created by collisions of beam electrons with gas atoms are rapidly expelled by the strong radial electric field of the beam charge. The ions that remain inside the beam partially neutralize the electric field, allowing magnetic pinch forces to focus the beam. Experiments with the ETA beam have re-verified this stable window and are reported. Image forces from a close wall IFR propagation tank are also experimentally shown to center the beam and damp transverse oscillations. Results of experiments using 5 and 15 cm dia beam tubes are reported. For p tau > 2 torr-nsec (gas pressure x time into pulse the beam charge becomes completely neutralized by the ions, allowing a build up of plasma and resultant beam-plasma instabilities. The onset of these instabilities has been measured using rf pickup loops (0 to 2 GHz) and microwave detectors (6 to 40 GHz), and are also reported.

The electrical grounding, shielding, and isolation of plasma diagnostics on the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF-B) is a key part of the overall design. The Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) environment in which the Plasma Diagnostics System (PDS) will be required to operate is very harsh. The electrical grounding and shielding design which is being implemented to cope with this environment follows one which has been used successfully on the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX). Details of the MFTF-B plasma diagnostics facility, equipment grounding, shielding and isolation, and the cabling system are described in this paper.