FY 1980 CTR Plasma Engineering Studies performed at the University of Illinois are reported. Current studies concentrated on four major areas including (i) field-reversed mirror (FRM) and related compact tori, (ii) dynamic behavior of the reversed-field pinch (RFP) including transport and stability and start-up, (iii) plasma buildup in small mirrors by including finite, ion orbit effects as well as the drift cyclotron loss-cone velocity-space diffusion, and (iv) high-energy fusion product transport in non-circular and high-..beta.. tokamaks, alpha ash buildup and possible control in tokamaks. Various computer packages have been produced for FRM, FROP, RFP, small compact tori and non-circular tokamaks. Basic models and the code packages developed and tested with available experiments are of vital information that can be used in conceptual reactor studies for the scaling and prediction of plasma behavior in near-term reactors.

During FY 82, much effort was devoted to work in support of alternate confinement concepts, especially those involving field reversal. This work includes: (1) development of particle and energy confinement scaling for the Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) and the Field Reversed Theta Pinch (FRTP), and (2) analysis of start-up (heating and plasma build) for the spheromak and Field Reversed Mirror (FRM). In addition, a block of projects were concerned with fusion product effects, including heating and ash build-up. These include, (1) a study of possible use of radial electric fields to control ash build-up in tokamaks, (2) effects of alpha-driven microinstabilities on heating in tokamaks, and (3) fusion product transport, including effects of large angle scattering on orbits, in EBT and FRM devices. In a related study, the possibility of hot-ion mode operation (assuming strong transfer of fusion product energy to ions, e.g. via microinstabilities) was done with emphasis on calculation of ion-electron equilibration rates.

The current plasma engineering studies report on three major areas of fusion reactor development. Plasma engineering studies of the field-reversed mirror (FRM) have focused on stability, start-up, and fusion product heating and leakage. A Monte Carlo technique has been developed to study high-energy fusion product transport in the FRM. The stability studies involve use of a perturbation theory applied to orbits calculated with the SUPERLAYER code. Studies of the reversed-field pinches (RFP) have centered around development of a 1-D dynamic MHD code which is designed to investigate enhanced transport, cold particle fueling, fusion product heating, and stability limits. Rotation effects in the field-reversed theta pinch (FRTP) have been examined as a preliminary step in understanding its potential use in a reactor concept such as the moving plasmoid heater (MPH), also briefly examined here. Studies of fusion-product transport effects in tokamaks include plasma heating, blister-induced first wall erosion, and ash buildup limitations on burn time. Finally, other mirror systems studies have been concerned with both first-wall bombardment and plasma buildup during neutral beam injection.

Fusion engineering studies are described that relate to three areas of fusion reactor development. Techniques to examine high-energy alpha transport in tokamak plasmas are described along with results relative to wall bombardment and resultant plasma contamination. Calculations for an experiment planned for TFTR to verify this theory are also included. Studies of plasma heating, fueling and stability for a field-reversed mirror are described that have lead to the concept of a small (less than 10 MWe) reactor labeled SAFFIRE. Finally methods are proposed to improve the efficiency of a reversed-field pinch by extending its burn through refueling and energy-loss control.

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