C-Mod: the next Alcator

Alcator C-Mod is a tokamak under construction at MIT that is expected to play an important and flexible role in the international fusion research effort. It will address many of the vital physics questions still unanswered in high-performance tokamak plasma behavior and allow investigation of innovative approaches to tokamak improvement. The physics and engineering features of the tokamak are described, with an overview of the machine and plasma configurations included. On the basis of empirical scaling laws, an impressive plasma confinement performance is predicted