The radiation power loss and its variation with plasma density and current are studied in the ADITYA tokamak. The radiation power loss varies from 20% to 40% of the input power for different discharges. The radiation fraction decreases with increasing plasma current but it increases with increasing lineaveraged central density. The radiated power behavior has also been studied in discharges with short pulses of molecular beam injection (MBI) and gas puff (GP). The increase in radiation loss is limited to the edge chords in the case of GP, but it extends to the core region for MBI fueling. The MBI seems to indicate reduction in the edge recycling. It is observed that during the density limit disruption, the radiated power loss is more in the current quench phase as compared with the thermal quench phase and comes mainly from the plasma edge.

Low-dc-resistance superconducting joints in toroidal-and poloidal-field (TF and PF, respectively) coils of the steady-state superconducting tokamak-1 (SST-1) at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) is under testing. The feasibility of conduction-cooled leak-tight joints made between two double pancakes in the winding pack of the TF coil is validated through experiments. The configuration of these conduction-cooled joints is comprised of a prefabricated SS304L oxygen-free highconductivity copper leak-tight termination, into which the unconduited and soldered portion of the cable-in-conduit-conductor (CICC) is inserted. Once the cable space is inserted inside the prefabricated piece, solder filling is carried out, and the joints are realized by overlapping the mating ends and soldering them together. The supercritical helium flowing through the CICC exits prior to the termination length, and the joints are cooled by conduction. The joints are subjected to I × B-induced and bending-induced stresses during SST-1 operational scenarios. These stresses can lead to leaks in the joint region if they exceed the material strength or the brazing/welding strength. Both the thermal and electromagnetic stresses that developed at the copper-stainless steel prefabricated brazed region are measured on the SST-1 spare TF coil. These stresses are measured using the strain gauges during the cooldown and the charging of the spare TF coil up to its operational current of 10 kA at a conventional 4.5 K and 4 bar of supercritical helium forced flow. The electromagnetic-stress behavior at the time of quench that occurred accidently during the spare TF coil test at an 8 kA transport current was also studied. The signal-conditioning electronics required for this measurement are engineered and tested at the IPR before its implementation to the spare-TF-coil test campaign. The measured thermal and electromagnetic stresses are found to be in good agreement with the simulated finite-element Ansys results.

A steady state superconducting tokamak (SST-1) has been commissioned after the successful experimental and engineering validations of its critical sub-systems. During the 'engineering validation phase' of SST-1; the cryostat was demonstrated to be leak-tight in all operational scenarios, 80 K thermal shields were demonstrated to be uniformly cooled without regions of 'thermal runaway and hot spots', the superconducting toroidal field magnets were demonstrated to be cooled to their nominal operational conditions and charged up to 1.5 T of the field at the major radius. The engineering validations further demonstrated the assembled SST-1 machine shell to be a graded, stress-strain optimized and distributed thermo-mechanical device, apart from the integrated vacuum vessel being validated to be UHV compatible etc. Subsequently, 'field error components' in SST-1 were measured to be acceptable towards plasma discharges. A successful breakdown in SST-1 was obtained in SST-1 in June 2013 assisted with electron cyclotron pre-ionization in the second harmonic mode, thus marking the 'first plasma' in SST-1 and the arrival of SST-1 into the league of contemporary steady state devices.Subsequent to the first plasma, successful repeatable plasma start-ups with E ∼ 0.4 V m −1 , and plasma current in excess of 70 kA for 400 ms assisted with electron cyclotron heating pre-ionization at a field of 1.5 T have so far been achieved in SST-1. Lengthening the plasma pulse duration with lower hybrid current drive, confinement and transport in SST-1 plasmas and magnetohydrodynamic activities typical to large aspect ratio SST-1 discharges are presently being investigated in SST-1. In parallel, SST-1 has uniquely demonstrated reliable cryo-stable high field operation of superconducting TF magnets in the two-phase cooling mode, operation of vapour-cooled current leads with cold gas instead of liquid helium and an order less dc joint resistance in superconducting magnet winding packs with high transport currents. In parallel, SST-1 is also continually getting up-graded with first wall integration, superconducting central solenoid installation and over-loaded MgB 2 -brass based current leads etc. Phase-1 of SST-1 up-gradation is scheduled by the first half of 2015, after which long pulse plasma experiments in both circular and elongated configurations have been planned in SST-1.

Accurate measurement of electromagnetic and thermal stresses in cryogenic environments on superconductors is quite challenging, since the environment involves cryogenics and large time-varying as well as dc transport currents through the superconductor. In off-normal cases, such as the transition of a superconducting state to a normal state, which is often referred to as the ‘quench’ of the magnet, a high voltage is developed across the superconductor and the strain gages including their signal conditioning electronics are necessarily required to be isolated. Cryogenics brings in a large drifting thermal offset in the measurement, whereas the presence of a magnetic field around the strain gage introduces a magneto-resistance error. An external bridge completion technique has been developed and effectively extended to measuring the stresses on the joint region of the superconductors with noisy environment and space constraints. This paper describes the stress measurement techniques in the space-restricted joint regions of the superconductors and validates the techniques in a repeatable fashion on measurements carried out on the inter-connecting joints of large superconducting magnet winding packs of the steady state superconducting tokamak. This technique is advantageous in situations where in situ full active bridge configuration is not feasible due to practical limitations.

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