Tokamak research

Abstract

Progress in tokamak research is reviewed for the period 1971–74. The theories of MHD-stability, classical transport and anomalous transport have been refined. The tokamak device population has increased by about an order of magnitude. Non-Ohmic heating methods have been developed successfully. The severity of the problem of plasma impurity has been recognized, and technological countermeasures are being developed. The experimental results on energy confinement are not yet well understood theoretically and cannot be fitted by any simple empirical transport coefficient; the general empirical trend, however, is favourable to the achievement of reactor plasma conditions in large future tokamak devices.

Plasma-facing materials for fusion devices

“…The major emphasis in fusion research has been up to now on confining and heating a hydrogen plasma within closed nested magnetic sur faces in a toroidal vessel, such as in a tokamak ( Fig. 1) [8][9][10][11][12] or a stellarator ( Fig. 2) [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Non-linear numerical studies of the tearing mode

“…where we review the kinetic theory of the tearing instability [12], [13] and find that a kinetic treatment yields results which are consistent with the predictions of fluid theory.…”

Fusion reactivities and neutron source characteristics of beam-driven toroidal reactors with both D and T injection

“…(In practice, stability at low q will require a D-shaped, rectangular, or doublet cross section [12,31].) Figure 16 show's the variation of maximum Ow with both b/a and BM, Thus w i L h irrureasirig b/'a or HM, we advance from the knee of one ' P .…”

“…In the same approximation, the P required injection power is nearly to b/a , ' I and nearly P independent of.BM. ~heoretic:il considerations indicate that the largest vertical elongation for which stable operation is possible at low q is b/ap -2 to 3 [12,31]; for an elliptic cross section, b/a = 3 P corresponds to S = 2.2.…”