Present status of operation of the ETE spherical tokamak

The ETE is a spherical tokamak with aspect ratio A = 1.5 (major radius of 0.3m and minor radius of 0.2m) under development at LAP/INPE. The ETE incorporates some innovative features that resulted in a compact and light weighted device with good plasma accessibility. Since the first plasma obtained at the very end of 2000 (Ip = 12kA, duration of 2ms, Bo = 0.1T), the machine is operational and improvements are being done in order to achieve the planned final parameter values for the first phase of operation (Ip = 220kA, duration 15ms, Bo = 0.4T), which are limited by the available capacitors. The efforts are being focused on incrementing the energy of the capacitor banks, lessening the stray magnetic fields in the plasma region, conditioning the vacuum vessel wall, implementing diagnostics and optimizing the discharge parameters. Presently, plasma currents in the range of 40-60kA (duration of 6-12 ms) are routinely obtained. Electron temperatures up to 160eV and plasma densities up to 3.0x1019m-3 are being reached. (author)