Helicity Injected Torus Program Overview

The Helicity Injected Torus with Steady Inductive Helicity Injection (HIT--SI) spheromak experiment [Sieck, Nucl. Fusion v.46, p.254 (2006)] addresses critical issues for spheromaks, including current drive, high-beta operation, confinement quality and efficient steady-state operation. HIT--SI has a ``bow-tie'' shaped axisymmetric confinement region (major radius R=0.33 m, axial extent of 0.57 m) and two half-torus helicity injectors, one mounted on each end of the flux conserver. HIT--SI has produced spheromaks with up to 30 kA of toroidal current, using less than 4 MW of applied power, demonstrating that Steady Inductive Helicity Injection can generate and sustain discharges with modest power requirements. Fast camera images of HIT--SI discharges indicate a toroidally rotating n=1 structure, driven by the helicity injectors. The direction of the toroidal current is determined by the direction of rotation of the driven n=1. Measured surface and internal magnetic fields in HIT--SI discharges are consistent with that of the true 3D Taylor state, including the injectors. Recent HIT--SI physics studies, diagnostic improvements and machine upgrades will also be summarized.