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UrduNew fusion simulations of the inside of a tokamak reveal the ideal spot for a “cave” with flowing liquid lithium is near the bottom by the center stack, as the evaporating metal particles should land in just the right spot to dissipate excess heat from the plasma.
Tag: tokamak
Heating for fusion: Why toast plasma when you can microwave it!
Can plasma be sufficiently heated inside a tokamak using only microwaves? New research suggests it can! Eliminating the central ohmic heating coil normally used in tokamaks will free up much-needed space for a more compact, efficient spherical tokamak.
Ground-Breaking Efforts Overcome an Operational Limit of Tokamaks, Advancing Efforts to Achieve Fusion Energy
Fuel density in fusion tokamak devices has historically been constrained by limits in device design. Now, however, researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have for the first time gone beyond these density limits while simultaneously maintaining high confinement quality. These conditions have in the past been mutually exclusive. The result points to a possible solution for a common challenge for tokamak devices.
Apple versus doughnut: How the shape of a tokamak impacts the limits of the edge of the plasma
PPPL scientists have developed a new theoretical model about the edge of a plasma, which can become unstable and potentially damage a fusion reactor. The model refines ideas about a critical obstacle on the path to harnessing clean energy from this fourth state of matter.
Fusion record set for tungsten tokamak WEST
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory researchers measured a new record for a fusion device internally clad in tungsten. The device sustained a fusion reaction for a record six minutes and four seconds with 1.15 gigajoules of power injected, 15% more energy and twice the density than before.
New instrument could help scientists tailor plasma to produce more fusion heat
Scientists at PPPL have finished building a new plasma measurement instrument that could aid efforts to boost the heat of fusion reactions in facilities known as tokamaks.
PPPL makes critical contributions to historic public-private partnership
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory confirms achievement of 100 million degree plasma, the heat required for commercial fusion energy production, in the UK Tokamak Energy’s compact spherical ST40 tokamak.
Early career scientist wins prestigious Hungarian physics award
Laszlo Horvath, an early career physicist at PPPL, is the winner of the 2022 Károly Simonyi Memorial Plaque from the Hungarian Nuclear Society.
Small Fusion Experiment Hits Temperatures Hotter than the Sun’s Core
Future commercial fusion power plants will need to achieve temperatures of 100 million degrees C, which requires careful control of the plasma. Researchers have now achieved these temperatures on a compact spherical tokamak called ST40. The results are a step toward fusion pilot plants and the development of more compact, and potentially more economical, fusion power sources.
Stuck in the Rough: How Aging Reactor Walls May Exhibit Lower Erosion
The plasma in a fusion device can erode device walls, releasing particles in a process called sputtering. These particles can reduce a device’s performance and lifespan. In this study, researchers examined how the smoothness of device surfaces changes at small scales over time and how this affects erosion. This research will aid in the future design and operation of fusion power plants.
Tokamak Experiments Provide Unique Data for Validating Spacecraft Heat Shield Ablation Models
When a spacecraft enters a thick atmosphere at a high velocity, it rapidly compresses the gas in front of it, creating a hot, dense plasma. To protect against damage, spacecraft are typically covered by a heat shield material. Scientists for the first time used a tokamak to study what happens to these materials in a hot plasma. The research creates a path to improving heat shield materials for future planetary exploration.
Predicting Explosive Energy Bursts in Compact Fusion Power Plants
Edge localized modes (ELMs) associated with plasma instabilities in tokamak fusion reactors can damage reactor walls, a challenge in the design of future fusion power plants. Scientists have now discovered that internal resistance of the plasma can cause additional instabilities that drive ELMs in the National Spherical Torus Experiment. This will help researchers mitigate and control ELMs in spherical tokamaks.
Department of Energy Announces $47 Million for Research at Tokamak and Spherical Tokamak Facilities
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $47 million to U.S. scientists conducting experimental research in fusion energy science at tokamak and spherical tokamak facilities in the U.S. and around the globe. The awards support research that aims to close gaps in the science and technology basis for the tokamak approach to fusion energy. These awards will help support the Biden Administration’s decadal vision to accelerate fusion as a clean energy technology.
Elemental research: Scientists apply boron to tungsten components in fusion facilities
Scientists at have conducted research showing that a PPPL-developed powder dropper can successfully drop boron powder into high-temperature plasma within tokamaks that have parts made of a heat-resistant material known as tungsten.
For Plasma with a Hot Core and Cool Edges, Super-H Mode Shows Promise
Fusion reactors face a challenge called “core-edge integration,” which involves maintaining a plasma that is hot at the core but not too hot to damage reactor walls. New research finds that a previously identified operating regime called Super H-mode can leverage the use of impurities such as nitrogen to address this challenge. The research also indicates that Super-H mode can be scaled up to future fusion plants.
Researchers Stick Out Their Necks to Understand How Fusion Plasmas Fuel Up
The nuclei that smash together to produce fusion energy in a reactor originate from ionized neutral particles. The edges of fusion devices have large numbers of neutrals available to gain or lose electrons to become ions. These neutrals influence several important features of the plasma, including the rate at which the plasma fuels a reactor. A new pinhole camera system called Lyman-alpha Measurement Apparatus (LLAMA) on the DIII-D tokamak helped researchers better understand these neutrals.
Anne White: Then and Now / 2011 Early Career Award Winner
Anne White at MIT had a vision for an innovative approach to experiments to aid in the study and understanding of tokamak turbulence. Her work has developed rigorous validation of the models used to detail measurements of the turbulence, towards fusion’s promise of clean and nearly unlimited energy.
U.S. Researchers Simulate Compact Fusion Power Plant Concept
The Compact Advanced Tokamak (CAT) concept uses physics models to show that by carefully shaping the plasma and the distribution of current in the plasma, fusion plant operators can suppress turbulent eddies in the plasma. This would reduce heat loss and allow more efficient reactor operation. This advance could help achieve self-sustaining plasma and smaller, less expensive power plants.
Imposing Chaos on Magnetic Fields Suppresses Runaway Electrons in a Fusion Plasma
Researchers are using smaller tokamaks and computer models to test approaches for suppressing runaway electrons. This research used measurements and modeling to demonstrate that perturbations to the magnetic field in a tokamak fusion plasma can suppress high-energy runaway electrons. The results could help improve the operation of ITER and other future fusion devices.
Negative Triangularity—a Positive for Tokamak Fusion Reactors
In a conventional tokamak, the cross-section of the plasma is shaped like the letter D. Facing the straight part of the D on the inside side of the donut-shaped tokamak is called positive triangularity. New research suggests that reversing the plasma—negative triangularity–reduces how much the plasma interacts with the surfaces of the tokamak for reduced wear.
Hot Core and Cool Walls Lead to Better Fusion Containment
Creating an efficient fusion plasma in a tokamak requires a plasma with an extremely hot core but edges cool enough to protect the tokomak walls. Researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility developed a solution that uses the active injection of gases to cool the edge coupled with enhanced core confinement.
DIII-D Scientists Identify New Peaks in Fusion Power
In new experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, researchers separately measured the deposition of particles and turbulent transport in in high-confinement plasmas. The research showed that the increase is the result of electrons being transported by turbulence up a hill of plasma density.
Building a star in a smaller jar
Researchers at PPPL have gained a better understanding of a promising method for improving the confinement of superhot fusion plasma using magnetic fields.
An Innovation for Fusion Device Walls May Have Unexpected Benefits for the Core
Instabilities in tokamak confinement fields can damage reactor walls by exposing them to plasma. Resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) suppresses instabilities, but it was thought to impair confinement. New research shows that RMP has no effect on confinement and actually improves tokamak operation.
Scientists Solve Key Challenge for Controlling “Runaway” Electrons in Fusion Plasmas
Scientists at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have for the first time studied the internal structure and stability of high-energy runaway electron (RE) beams in a tokamak. The finding could provide a way to control the damaging potential of RE beams and could contribute to future power production using tokamak fusion power plants.
Moving on Up, to the Top for Fusion Power
Researchers have demonstrated a new approach for injecting microwaves into a tokamak fusion device. In a fusion electron-cyclotron current drive (ECCD), microwaves help stabilize the plasma while the tokamak heats the plasma on the path to fusion. The new approach to ECCD is twice as efficient as previous approaches.
Magnetic Ripples Calm the Surface of Fusion Plasmas
The ITER fusion reactor being built in the south of France will use rippled magnetic fields to prevent bursts of heat and particles that can damage the walls of the reactor. Now, physicists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the DIII-D national fusion facility have compared computer simulations of the DIII-D plasma with experimental measurements to better understand how controlled magnetic ripples outside the plasma can suppress these bursts.
Climbing the Staircase to Fusion
Recent experiments in the DIII-D tokamak demonstrate that more turbulence at the edge of the plasma can result in it being hotter.
DIII-D Researchers Use Machine Learning to Steer Fusion Plasmas Near Operational Limits
Researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility recently achieved a scientific first when they used machine learning calculations to automatically prevent fusion plasma disruptions in real time, while simultaneously optimizing the plasma for peak performance. The new experiments are the first of what they expect to be a wave of research in which machine learning–augmented controls could broaden the understanding of fusion plasmas. The work may help deliver reliable, peak-performance operation of future fusion reactors.
Unraveling how Tungsten Armor Erodes in Tokamak Walls
Scientists developed a new model to describe how large, periodic bursts of plasma known as edge localized modes (ELMs) erode parts of tokamak walls. Tokamaks are devices used to study the process of fusion.
Batten down the hatches: Preventing heat leaks to help create a star on Earth
PPPL physicists have identified a method by which instabilities can be tamed and heat can be prevented from leaking from fusion plasma, giving scientists a better grasp on how to optimize conditions for fusion in devices known as tokamaks.
Brookhaven–Commonwealth Fusion Energy Project Wins DOE Funding
Brookhaven’s Superconducting Magnet Division will partner with industry to develop and characterize superconducting power cables.
Light my fire: How to startup fusion devices every time
Researchers have constructed a framework for starting and raising a fusion plasma to temperatures rivaling the sun in hundreds of milliseconds.