''Compact toroid research''

During the period from August 1988 to August 1989, the CSS project has made progress in three areas: The Coaxial Slow Source Upgrade CSSU version of the device was operated until January of 1989. In the Fall of 1988 Langmuir probes were installed to measure the end losses, the Thomson scattering system was made more sensitive, and a more detailed scan with internal magnetic probes was performed. Since then, the CSSU-centered work has concentrated on refining the analysis and interpretation of data. The CSS device was rebuilt as CSSP in the period Jan--June 1989, and began operation on July 3, 1989. Simultaneously, a new data acquisition and processing system based on a Vax 3200 workstation and MDS and IDL software was developed. The COAX 2 code was significant improved by the treatment of hydrogen ionization, including the radiative loss terms, and the inclusion of a more consistent transport and impurity radiation package. The improved code was used both to interpret the results of the CSSU experiments, and to predict performance for the CSSP and CSS2 devices. Details of these three areas of progress are given in the following sections