START-UP AND RAMP-UP OF THE PLT TOKAMAK BY LOWER HYBRID WAVES.

Abstract

Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) is an inherently steady state means of maintaining the poloidal field of a tokamak. Experiments have been performed on PLT and other tokamaks to examine the role of LHCD in start-up and ramp-up as well as to examine the efficiency of steady-state current drive. Both the start-up and the ramp-up experiments on PLT were quite successful, with the start-up experiment obtaining currents up to 20% of full current for PLT, and the ramp-up experiments obtaining ramp-up efficiencies of approximately 20%.