Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
MAJOR UROP PROJECT Bringing Space Plasmas Down to Earth by Eugene F. Mallove News Office Imagine capturing the Northern Lights--the Aurora Borealis--in a magnetic bottle and investigating the beautiful celestial phenomena in the laboratory. Researchers at the MIT Plasma Fusion Center are doing just that and much more with their newly constructed Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF), which will serve as a kind of universal tool to investigate plasmas-- gaseous mixtures of electrons, positively charged atoms, and bare atomic nuclei. Turned on for the first time last New Year's eve and dedicated two weeks ago, the new facility owes its existence to 20 spare magnets left over from a decommissioned fusion research machine--a tokamak--from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. Other parts came from MIT's own "Tara" research machine--a so-called "mirror magnet" fusion device. But the Plasma Fusion Center's VTF would never have sprung to life had it not been for a dedicated group of UROP students, graduate students, and staff researchers. Over the past year and a half, 22 UROP students and five graduate students have bent their considerable energies toward preparing the facility. They received their real world scientific-engineering experience in the PFC's "Nabisco Laboratory" where the VTF is set up, the site of a former bakery goods warehouse. The students who have worked on VTF come from a broad spectrum of MIT courses--nuclear engineering, electrical engineering, physics, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering. With federal energy research funding cutbacks already having an impact on some Plasma Fusion Center operations, it would have been impossible to carry out a project that might have cost millions of dollars had it not been for student labor. In what PFC staff believe to be the largest UROP project ever, the students tested magnets, vacuum chambers, and 16 gaping ports for affixing instruments to measure plasmas. The donut-shaped inner chamber of the machine is about 2.5 meters in diameter. It's minor radius--a slice through one side of the donut--is 27 centimeters. A radio- frequency heater sends power into the chamber to create glowing plasmas. VTF is larger than even Alcator C-MOD that is nearing completion in an adjacent room. Of course, the machines have totally different objectives and the magnetic fields in Alcator C-MOD will be ten times stronger. Alcator C-MOD is part of the main line evolution of fusion reactor technology. At the dedication ceremony earlier this month, PFC Director Ronald Parker observed that the MIT tradition of hands-on student involvement in front-line research projects is alive and well within the PFC. Dr. Min-Chang Lee, leader of the PFC's Ionospheric Plasma Research Group, beamed with pride as he praised his graduate students and UROP students for their efforts. Professor Parker also singled out the contribution of Dr. Marcel Gaudreau, who provided engineering guidance and supervision to the student team during the construction phase. Professor Parker and Dr. Lee, together with Dr. Stanley Luckhardt, are planning a research program that focuses on basic physical processes occurring in plasmas found in space and laboratory fusion devices. Dr. Lee read a letter from the key sponsor, Dr. Robert J. Barker, manager for plasma physics at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research: ". . . I congratulate you and your hard-working team of graduate and undergraduate students on the construction of our new Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF). This was an awesome scientific and engineering undertaking. Your success represents a promising bright spot in these troubled times for our field. . . "I find the massive level of student involvement to be particularly gratifying. Our nation desperately needs more PhD-level scientists and engineers. In particular, we need an injection of youthful enthusiasm into our field of plasma physics if the goal of controlled fusion energy is to be realized in our lifetime." In addition to AFOSR, NASA, and MIT through its UROP funding, have also supported the project financially. Dr. Lee's nuclear engineering graduate student Dan Moriarty, who did his thesis on a major magnetic subsystem of the VTF, said, "These UROP students certainly aren't just helping hands. Our best machinist is a sophomore and the person in charge of computer data acquisition--a huge control system--is a sophomore. We rely on them. They have incredible responsibilities. It's a very meaningful UROP." The outlook of PFC research scientist, Dr. Stanley Luckhardt, is typical of the high hopes for the VTF. He said, "This is an excellent general purpose facility that will be able to do a wide range of experiments-- not only ionospheric physics, but also investigations of plasma turbulence. We plan to involve people from various divisions within the PFC." Professor Parker says, "The VTF is a very important new device which will enable continuation of the innovative research that has been the hallmark of the Versator program for nearly two decades. I look forward to the contributions of a new generation of students who will produce novel and exciting results using this facility."