Engineering Design of the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment

The National Spherical Tokamak Experiment (NSTX) is an ultra low aspect ratio device with a plasma current of 1 MA. The tokamak features auxiliary heating and current drive with a close-fitting conducting shell to maximize the plasma pressure. NSTX is designed for an experimental pulse length that will demonstrate quasi-steady state non-inductively driven advanced tokamak operation. The design also takes maximum advantage of existing facilities and components from previous Princeton devices to reduce the overall program costs.