This proceedings volume, the sixteenth in a biannual series, presents a snapshot of the state of current research worldwide on Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) and related technologies. The papers address the physics, both theory and experiment, of ECE and ECRH. The technologies of high power millimeter-wave sources — gyrotrons — and transmission lines and launchers are included. The focus is on physics and technology relevant to the research and development of nuclear fusion.

This proceedings volume, the sixteenth in a biannual series, presents a snapshot of the state of current research worldwide on Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) and related technologies. The papers address the physics, both theory and experiment, of ECE and ECRH. The technologies of high power millimeter-wave sources ? gyrotrons ? and transmission lines and launchers are included. The focus is on physics and technology relevant to the research and development of nuclear fusion.

The 12th Joint Workshop on Electron Cyclotron Emission and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (EC-12) was held in Aix-en-Provence (France) from May 13 to 16, 2002. This workshop was concerned with the interaction of electromagnetic waves and hot plasmas, a subject of great importance in the framework of research on controlled thermonuclear fusion. Using as a fuel a mixture of deuterium and tritium, which can be extracted from sea water, this is a very promising way to develop an intrinsically safe reactor. The workshop gathered approximately one hundred specialists in the production, use and theory of millimetre waves for heating and diagnostics of fusion plasmas.

These proceedings present the latest results in electron cyclotron emission, heating and current drive, with an emphasis on the physics and technology of Electron Cyclotron Emission, Electron Cyclotron Heating and Electron Cyclotron Current Drive applied to magnetic fusion research. The field is a key element in the development of fusion power and the ITER project now under construction.

These proceedings present the latest results in electron cyclotron emission, heating and current drive, with an emphasis on the physics and technology of Electron Cyclotron Emission, Electron Cyclotron Heating and Electron Cyclotron Current Drive applied to magnetic fusion research. The field is a key element in the development of fusion power and the ITER project now under construction.

Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.

Because magnetically confined plasmas are generally not found in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, they have been studied extensively with methods of applied kinetic theory. In closed magnetic field line confinement devices such as the tokamak, non-Maxwellian distortions usually occur as a result of auxiliary heating and transport. In magnetic mirror configurations even the intended steady state plasma is far from local thermodynamic equilibrium because of losses along open magnetic field lines. In both of these major fusion devices, kinetic models based on the Boltzmann equation with Fokker-Planck collision terms have been successful in representing plasma behavior. The heating of plasmas by energetic neutral beams or microwaves, the production and thermalization of a-particles in thermonuclear reactor plasmas, the study of runaway electrons in tokamaks, and the performance of two-energy compo nent fusion reactors are some examples of processes in which the solution of kinetic equations is appropriate and, moreover, generally necessary for an understanding of the plasma dynamics. Ultimately, the problem is to solve a nonlinear partial differential equation for the distribution function of each charged plasma species in terms of six phase space variables and time. The dimensionality of the problem may be reduced through imposing certain symmetry conditions. For example, fewer spatial dimensions are needed if either the magnetic field is taken to be uniform or the magnetic field inhomogeneity enters principally through its variation along the direction of the field.