Design,simulation and construction of the Taban tokamak

This paper describes the design and construction of the Taban tokamak, which is located in Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. The Taban tokamak was designed for plasma investigation. The design, simulation and construction of essential parts of the Taban tokamak such as the toroidal field(TF) system, ohmic heating(OH) system and equilibrium field system and their power supplies are presented. For the Taban tokamak, the toroidal magnetic coil was designed to produce a maximum field of 0.7 T at R?=?0.45 m. The power supply of the TF was a130 kJ, 0–10 kV capacitor bank. Ripples of toroidal magnetic field at the plasma edge and plasma center are 0.2% and 0.014%, respectively. For the OH system with 3 kA current, the stray field in the plasma region is less than 40 G over 80% of the plasma volume. The power supply of the OH system consists of two stages, as follows. The fast bank stage is a 120 μF, 0–5 k V capacitor that produces 2.5 kA in 400 μs and the slow bank stage is 93 mF, 600 V that can produce a maximum of 3 kA. The equilibrium system can produce uniform magnetic field at plasma volume. This system's power supply, like the OH system, consists of two stages, so that the fast bank stage is 500 μF, 800 V and the slow bank stage is 110 mF, 200 V.     

Buckling Analysis of TF Coil Inner Leg for Central Solenoidless Tokamak

The central post is one of the critical components for the low aspect ratio tokamak, which endures not only a tremendous ohmic heating because it carries a rather high current, but also a large neutron heating and irradiation owing to the plasma operation. The DS copper alloy Glidcop AL-25[8] was chosen as the conductor material for its adequate mechanical properties and physics properties. The central post has a cylindrical structure with lots of cooling channels. The length of the central post for the next generation of nuclear fusion spherical tokamaks will be more than 10 m or 20 m. The structural stability is very crucial. When the applied load is larger than the structure critical buckling load, the device will lose its stability and collapse. In order to calculate the critical buckling load, a 1/6-segment finite element model was used and the force acting on the central post was simulated. The results showed that the vertical compressive stresses mainly affect the stability of the central post. The linear buckling analysis results with finite element method based on small deformation theory were given in this paper. The relation curves and functions for buckling factor, depending on the different lengths and the radius of the central post, the diameter of cooling channel and the maximum allowable current density, were also shown.     

Influence of the safety factor profile on the particle and heat transport in the Globus-M spherical tokamak

The advanced tokamak scenario is a promising operation scenario for ITER and fusion neutron sources. In this scenario the minimum value of the safety factor in the center of the plasma exceeds unity. In the compact spherical tokamak Globus-M, the formation of such conditions is possible with neutral beam injection at the current ramp-up phase. Due to the slower diffusion of current inside the plasma, a zone is formed with reduced heat and particle transport across the magnetic field, which affects the temperature and density profiles of the plasma. This leads to the peaked density profile formation and improvement of the energy confinement time. To achieve a high fraction of the bootstrap current, it is necessary to increase the plasma pressure. At the same time, the maximum allowable pressure is limited to the normalized beta limit.     

Author index to volume 63

STARFIRE is a design for a conceptual commercial tokamak electrical power plant based on the deuterium/tritium/lithium fuel cycle. In addition to the goal of being technologically credible, the design incorporates safety and environmental considerations. STARFIRE is considered to be the tenth in a series of commercial fusion power plants.STARFIRE has a 7-m major radius reactor producing 1200 MW of net electrical power from 4000 MW of thermal power, with an average neutron wall load of 3.6 MW/m². The aspect ratio is 3.6 and a D-shaped plasma with a height-to-width ratio of 1.6 and average toroidal beta of 0.067 is used. The maximum magnetic field is 11T. Availability goals have been set at 85% for the reactor and 75% for the complete plant including the reactor.The major features for STARFIRE include a steady-state operating mode based on a continuous rf lower-hybrid current drive and auxiliary heating, solid tritium breeder material, pressurized water cooling, limiter/vacuum for impurity control, most superconducting EF coils outside the TF superconducting coils, fully remote maintenance, and a low-activation shield.     

STARFIRE,a commercial tokamak power plant design

STARFIRE is a design for a conceptual commercial tokamak electrical power plant based on the deuterium/tritium/lithium fuel cycle. In addition to the goal of being technologically credible, the design incorporates safety and environmental considerations. STARFIRE is considered to be the tenth in a series of commercial fusion power plants.STARFIRE has a 7-m major radius reactor producing 1200 MW of net electrical power from 4000 MW of thermal power, with an average neutron wall load of 3.6 MW/m². The aspect ratio is 3.6 and a D-shaped plasma with a height-to-width ratio of 1.6 and average toroidal beta of 0.067 is used. The maximum magnetic field is 11T. Availability goals have been set at 85% for the reactor and 75% for the complete plant including the reactor.The major features for STARFIRE include a steady-state operating mode based on a continuous rf lower-hybrid current drive and auxiliary heating, solid tritium breeder material, pressurized water cooling, limiter/vacuum for impurity control, most superconducting EF coils outside the TF superconducting coils, fully remote maintenance, and a low-activation shield.     

Continuous tokamak operation with an internal transformer

A large improvement in efficiency of current drive in a tokamak can be obtained using neutral beam injection to drive the current in a plasma which has low density and high resistivity. The current established under such conditions acts as the primary of a transformer to drive current in an ignited high-density plasma. In the context of a model of plasma confinement and fusion reactor costs, it is shown that such transformer action has substantial advantages over strict steady-state current drive. It is also shown that cycling plasma density and fusion power is essential for effective operation of an internal transformer cycle. Fusion power loading must be periodically reduced for intervals whose duration is comparable to the maximum of the particle confinement and thermal inertia time scales for plasma fueling and heating. The design of neutron absorption blankets which can tolerate reduced power loading for such short intervals is identified as a critical problem in the design of fusion power reactors.     

小球形托卡马克嬗变堆堆芯参数分析

本文探讨作为聚变能中间应用的一种可行性 :利用低环径比球状托卡马克堆的高能聚变中子嬗变核电站的核废物。计算了堆芯等离子体物理参数、中心柱增益并进行参数学分析、几种可能的电流驱动方案比较和中心柱冷却方案设计及其计算。为了减轻偏滤器和第一壁材料的要求 ,我们有意选择较低堆芯物理参数 ,较低的中子壁负载运行。结果表明中心柱增益较低。建议从理论上探索研究由球状托卡马克等离子体顺磁性 ,建立一个无力球马克极向电流壳为中心区提供大部分或全部Bt,旨在建立无中心柱的低径比球状托卡马堆。如果可行 ,它的性能将会大大改善     

Numerical Simulation of Non-Inductive Current Driven Scenario in EAST Using Neutral Beam Injection

For achieving the scientific mission of long pulse and high performance operation,experimental advanced superconducting tokamak(EAST) applies fully superconducting magnet technology and is equiped with high power auxiliary heating system.Besides RF(Radio Frequency) wave heating,neutral beam injection(NBI) is an effective heating and current drive method in fusion research.NBCD(Neutral Beam Current Drive) as a viable non-inductive current drive source plays an important role in quasi-steady state operating scenario for tokamak.The non-inductive current driven scenario in EAST only by NBI is predicted using the TSC/NUBEAM code.At the condition of low plasma current and moderate plasma density,neutral beam injection heats the plasma effectively and NBCD plus bootstrap current accounts for a large proportion among the total plasma current for the flattop time.     

Coupling Effect between Equilibrium Field and Heating Field and Modification of the Power Supply System on SUNIST Spherical Tokamak

Strong inductive coupling between the heating field and equilibrium field is confirmed to be responsible for the poor plasma equilibrium in initial discharges on the SUNIST spherical tokamak. A modification project for the power supply system of equilibrium field coils is successfully performed to increase the duration time of plasma current flattop from nmch less than 1ms to about 2 ms.     

On the heating mechanism of electron cyclotron resonance thruster immerged in a non-uniform magnetic field

To study the heating mechanism of electron cyclotron resonance thruster(ECRT) immersed in a non-uniform magnetic field, experiments and simulations are performed based on an electron cyclotron resonance plasma source at ASIPP. It is found that the first harmonic of electron cyclotron resonance is essential for plasma ignition at high magnetic field(0.0875 T), while the plasma can sustain without the first and second harmonics of electron cyclotron resonance at low magnetic field(till 0.0170 T). Evidence of radial hollow density profile indicates that upper hybrid resonance, which has strong edge heating effect, is the heating mechanism of low-field ECRT. The heating mode transition from electron cyclotron resonance to upper hybrid resonance is also revealed. Interestingly, the evolutions of electron temperature and electron density with input power experience a ‘delayed' jump, which may be correlated with the different power levels required for cyclotron and ionization. Moreover, when the field strength decreased, the variation of electron density behaves in an opposite trend with that of electron temperature,implying a possible competition of power deposition between them. The present work is of great interest for understanding the plasma discharge in ECRT especially immersed in a non-uniform magnetic field, and designing efficient ECRT using low magnetic field for economic space applications.     

Design of a Wedge-Shaped Toroidal Field Winding for KTX Device

The KTX device is a reversed field pinch(RFP)device currently under construction.Its maximum plasma current is designed as 1 MA with a discharge time longer than 100 ms.Its major radius is 1.4 m and its minor radius is 0.55 m.One of the most important problems in the magnet system design is how to reduce the TF magnetic field ripple and error field.A new wedgeshaped TF coil is put forward for the KTX device and its electromagnetic properties are compared with those of rectangular-shaped TF coils.The error field Bn/Btof wedge-shaped TF coils with6.4 degrees is about 6%as compared with 8%in the case of a rectangular-shaped TF coil.Besides,the wedge-shaped TF coils have a lower magnetic field ripple at the edge of the plasma region,which is smaller than 7.5%at R=1.83 m and 2%at R=1.07 m.This means that the tokamak operation mode may be feasible for this device when the plasma area becomes smaller,because the maximum ripple in the plasma area of the tokamak model is always required to be smaller than 0.4%.Detailed analysis of the results shows that the structure of the wedged-shape TF coil is reliable.It can serve as a reference for TF coil design of small aspect ratio RFPs or similar torus devices.     

The residual zonal flow in tokamak plasmas with a poloidal electric field

In a tokamak plasma with auxiliary heating by cyclotron waves, a poloidal electric field will be produced, and as a consequence influence the residual zonal flow(RZF) level. The poloidal electric field can also be induced through biasing electrodes at the edge region of tokamaks.Numerical evaluation for a large aspect ratio circular cross section tokamak for the electron cyclotron wave heating indicates that the RZF level decreases significantly when the poloidal electric field increases. Qualitatively, the ion cyclotron wave heating is able to increase the RZF level. It is difficult to apply the calculation to the real cyclotron wave heating experiments since we need to know factors such as the plasma profiles, the exact power deposition and the cross section geometry, etc. It is possible to use the cyclotron wave heating to control the zonal flow and then to control the turbulence level in tokamak experiments.     

Predictive Simulations of Plasma Heating and Current Drive by Neutral Beam Injection on EAST

Long pulse and high performance steady-state operation is the main scientific mission of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST). In order to achieve this objective, high-power auxiliary heating systems are essential. Radio frequency (RF) wave heating and neutral beam injection (NBI) are two principal methods. NBI is an effective method of plasma heating and current drive, and it has been used in many magnetic confinement fusion devices. Based on the plasma equilibrium of EAST (Li et al., Plasma Phys Control Fusion 55:125008, 2013) plus previous EAST experimental data used as initial conditions, the NBI module (Polevoi et al., JAERI-Data, 1997) employed in automated system for transport analysis (ASTRA) code (Pereverzev et al., IPP-Report, 2002) is applied to predict the effects of plasma heating and current drive with different neutral beam injection power levels. At certain levels of plasma densities and plasma current densities, the simulation results show that the NBI heats plasma effectively, also increases the proportions of NB current and bootstrap current among total current significantly.     

The design and the manufacturing process of the superconducting toroidal field magnet system for EAST device

The toroidal field (TF) magnet system of EAST (HT-7U), which consists of 16 superconducting coils enclosed in steel cases, has been manufactured to generate the magnetic field of 3.5 T at the plasma center to maintain plasma in a tokamak configuration with a current up to 1 MA. The TF coils have an approximately D-shape geometry of 2.6 m wide and 4.0 m high, and operate at a maximum field of 5.8 T. The conductor used in the TF coil is NbTi/Cu cable-in conduit (CIC) conductor, and its operating current is 14.3 kA.In March 2006, the first cooling down of the EAST device has been carried out successfully. The total of TF magnet system has been cooled down from room temperature to 4.5 K, and the TF system has been energized up to 8.2 kA with 5 A/s ramp rate. In September 2006, full performances of the TF magnet system have been reached, and the device of EAST has delivered its first plasma. In addition, the TF magnet system has been routinely operated with a current maintained constant on a whole day basis, for a preliminary program of more than 500 shots.In this paper, the main parts of the design, developmental tests, and the fabrication and assembly of TF coils are described in detail.     

Feedback Control of Plasma Current and Horizontal Position in HT-7

1. IntroductionA superconducting tokamak HT-7 has been estab-lished at ASIPP, Hefei, China. The machine.was de-signed to mainly investigate the reactor-relevant ls-sues, such as edvanced operation modes and plasmawall interastions in the near-steady-state condition.Its poloidal fie1d coils include ohmic heatlng coi1s'bias field coils' vertical field coils and horizontalfie1d coi1s (See Fig.1), being connected to indlvldualpower supplies which are all the thyristor--controlledrectifier unlt…     

Experimental study of density pump-out on EAST

In the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak,density pump-out phenomena were observed by using a multi-channel polarimeter-interferometer system under different heating schemes of ion cyclotron resonant heating,electron cyclotron resonance heating,and neutral beam injection.The density pump-out was also induced with application of resonant magnetic perturbation,accompanied with a degradation of particle confinement.For the comparison analysis in all heating schemes,the typical plasma parameters are plasma current 400 k A,toroidal field 2 T,and line average density 2?×?10~(19)m~(-3).The experimental results show that the degree of pump-out is concerned with electron density and heating power.Low density deuterium low confinement(L-mode) plasmas(3.5?×?10~(19)m~(-3)) show strong pump-out effects.The density pump-out correlated with a significant drop of particle confinement.     

Identification of Plasma Boundary and Position for HL-2A Tokamak

Using the virtual-case principle, the plasma boundary, the plasma current center, and the x-point are identified for the HL-2A tokamak. The plasma current is represented by the current center and the virtual multipole moments which produce a magnetic flux in a form of polynomial. Adaptive parameters in the polynomial are determined by the least-square fit of the poloidal magnetic fields. The measurement of the magnetic field is performed using pick-up coils. The virtual-case principle is applied outside the plasma boundary. The virtual-case currents decide the position of the current center and produce a negative confinement magnetic field inside the plasma and the magnetic field generated by the plasma current outside the plasma boundary. The convergence is fast enough to get a picture between the sequent shots. The configuration reconstructed is in good agreement with the TV image taken by camera with a tangential view.     

球形环研究概述

球形环是一种先进的磁约束核聚变研究装置 ,它保留了传统托卡马克装置的许多特点 ,比如说封闭磁面系统 ,中等旋转变换磁力线和好的等离子体约束性能等 ,同时又有低环径比 ,低纵向磁场 ,从而具有结构紧凑 ,造价相对低廉等优点 ,是有潜力的磁约束核聚变途径之一。概述了球形环的装置、实验、理论等方面的研究现状和有待探索的问题     

Neutral beam deployment on DEMO and its influence on design

The demands on the neutral beam heating and current drive system of a DEMO device exceed those of existing fusion experiments by several orders of magnitude. By predicting possible power waveforms it is possible to analyse the technological advances necessary to achieve a system relevant to deployment on a power plant. Achieving the necessary efficiency will require simultaneous improvements in beam current density, neutralization efficiency and beam transmission. Considering the deployment on the tokamak vessel shows no major disruption to the tritium breeder blanket and no requirement to reach a high packing density of injectors. The thermal management of components subjected to low heat flux for many hours is considered and it is shown that radiation cooling can be exploited to control the temperature of such items.