This report describes a cold mass support system based on the use of oriented fiberglassepoxy rods in bending.

We are in the process of testing a new technique for measuring the magnetic field-line topology in magnetically confined plasmas. The basic idea behind the FLIRT (Field LIne TRacing) diagnostic is to use a high powerful short pulse laser to launch a burst of energetic ({approx}100keV) electrons from a target passing through the plasma of interest; these electrons then generally follow field lines until they strike a solid surface, where a burst of x-rays is produced and then detected. The field line connection length can be determined from the time delay between the laser pulse and the burst of x-rays. The topology of the field lines can be inferred by measuring the connection length as a function of initial target location inside the plasma. Measuring the spatial distribution of the x-ray production will provide further information on the field topology, including the effects of magnetic field fluctuations and stochasticity. The work will eventually include testing the appropriate x-ray detectors, measuring the background x-ray emission in a spheromak plasma, measuring the energetic electron production by a short-pulse high power laser, and making preliminary measurements of the edge field line topology in the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment (SSPX) using a newly-designed pulsed …