Beam-heating research at the I.V. Kurchatov Institute

This paper contains a review of the results obtained on the T-11 tokamak with neutral beam injection. In recent experiments, the injection of approximately 0.6 MW H0-beams into D+-plasmas has produced volume-averaged beta values (βT) of 2-2.5% and central beta values βT (0) of approximately 9%. It was shown that the increase in (βT) up to approximately 2% did not deteriorate the plasma energy confinement. Experimental pressure profiles were examined with respect to stability criteria for high-n ballooning modes and were found to be stable (except a narrow central region) up to a (βT) of 3-3.5%. Phenomena related to the beam injection such as distortion of ion energy spectra, toroidal plasma rotation, and a beam-induced current are discussed. The future plans of beam-heating research at the Kurchatov Institute are presented