Effects of stray electrons are a main factor limiting performance of many accelerators. Because heavy-ion fusion (HIF) accelerators will operate in regimes of higher current and with walls much closer to the beam than accelerators operating today, stray electrons might have a large, detrimental effect on the performance of an HIF accelerator. A primary source of stray electrons is electrons generated when halo ions strike the beam pipe walls. There is some research on these types of secondary electrons for the HIF community to draw upon, but this work is missing one crucial ingredient: the effect of grazing incidence. The overall goal of this project was to develop the numerical tools necessary to accurately model the effect of grazing incidence on the behavior of halo ions in a HIF accelerator, and further, to provide accurate models of heavy ion stopping powers with applications to ICF, WDM, and HEDP experiments.

This project funded production process and tooling improvements to meet and sustain rate production for the W76-1 mechanism assemblies. Techniques were developed to allow evaluation and disposition of sealed stronglinks that resulted in prevention of the scrapping of numerous stronglinks and firesets. Improved processes and tooling allowed D-Test rates to be reduced in favor of E-Test, thus saving millions of dollars over the life of the program. Future system mechanisms will likely be smaller with tighter toleranced parts that will require improved inspection equipment and techniques. During the latter phase of this project, a method of improving inspection was developed that will have benefits for existing and future system mechanical assemblies.

In this paper we report on observations and interpretations of a new class of global MHD eigenmode solutions arising in gaps in the low frequency Alfven-acoustic continuum below the geodesic acoustic mode frequency. These modes have been just reported (Gorelenkov et al 2007 Phys. Lett. 370 70-7) where preliminary comparisons indicate qualitative agreement between theory and experiment. Here we show a more quantitative comparison emphasizing recent NSTX experiments on the observations of the global eigenmodes, referred to as beta-induced Alfven-acoustic eigenmodes (BAAEs), which exist near the extrema of the Alfven-acoustic continuum. In accordance to the linear dispersion relations, the frequency of these modes may shift as the safety factor, q, profile relaxes. We show that BAAEs can be responsible for observations in JET plasmas at relatively low beta <2% as well as in NSTX plasmas at relatively high beta >20%. In NSTX plasma observed magnetic activity has the same properties as predicted by theory for the mode structure and the frequency. Found numerically in NOVA simulations BAAEs are used to explain the observed properties of relatively low frequency experimental signals seen in NSTX and JET tokamaks.