A recent paper by Nakayama, Sato and Matsuoka suggests that elliptical cross section tokamaks with aspect ratio R/a = 3.2 and with elongation kappa = 2.6 are unstable to a splitting (m = 2, n = 0) instability for plasma ..beta.. > 5%, and that kappa /> =/ 4.0 plasmas are unstable to splitting for ..beta.. /> =/ 1%. We have tried to reproduce these results using the MHD evolution code TSC, but
... [Show full abstract] find these configurations to be stable, not even near a stability boundary. Even a kappa = 3.7 plasma with ..beta.. = 23.0% is stable to the splitting mode. However, the addition of pinching coils at the waist will cause the plasma to split if the current in these coils exceeds a critical value I/sub c/ which decreases with increasing ..beta... 8 refs., 11 figs., 1 tab.