OBSERVATION OF THE NEOCLASSICAL CURRENT IN THE SMALL HELIAC EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS (SHEILA)

The first measurements of internal currents in a toroidal heliac are r eported. It is suggested that the toroidal current observed in the Sma ll Heliac Experimental Apparatus (SHEILA) [Nucl. Fusion 25, 1485 (1985 )] in the low density regime consists mainly of the bootstrap current and the Pfirsch-Schluter current, the net toroidal component correspon ding to the uni-directional bootstrap current, and the asymmetric radi al profile of the observed current indicating a mixture of bootstrap c urrent with the bi-directional Pfirsch-Schluter current. (C) 1997 Amer ican Institute of Physics.