Over the past few weeks, after passage of the Omnibus Appropriations bill, fusion experiments at the Alcator C-Mod experiment in MIT resumed for the first time in months. As ASP wrote at the passage, this is an important first step in resuming leadership on fusion. 

Boston’s WBUR radio ran a story, “Restored Federal Funding Re-Energizes MIT’s Fusion Center” on the re-opening of MIT’s lab.

Dr. Stephen Dean, the President of Fusion Power Associates writes in an update: 

The operation of Alcator C-Mod at MIT has resumed less than 2 weeks after the signing of the 2014 Omnibus Budget bill by President Obama which authorized funding for C-Mod operation and research. The US Department of Energy had previously ordered MIT to plan to close the experiment in 2014.

 

Plasmas were first produced on January 29th after two days of system tests needed to bring up power systems. The past two weeks of operation were devoted to plasma conditioning of the plasma facing components and diagnostic commissioning. Some limited physics research was also conducted during this period. The investigation of pedestal and boundary physics will be a primary research goal of the first run campaign, including plasma-materials interaction and studies of I-mode in both single and double null discharges. Work on critical ITER research needs, including disruption physics and runaway electron suppression will also be a high priority.

 

An Ideas Forum is planned for March 5-6 at MIT, during which input from the worldwide fusion community to help plan future research campaigns will be sought.

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