Fusion breakthrough: improved control of plasma

Fusion breakthrough: improved control of plasma

Futuretime.net 14th September 2018 Researchers have predicted the entire set of beneficial 3-D distortions for controlling edge localised modes (ELMs) in tokamak plasma. A long-time puzzle in the effort to capture the power of fusion is how to lessen or eliminate a common instability that occurs in the plasma called edge localised modes (ELMs). Just … Read more

Extreme-Scale Code Models Extremely Hot Plasma to Explain Spontaneous Transition

Extreme-Scale Code Models Extremely Hot Plasma to Explain Spontaneous Transition

DOE For the first time, scientists modeled the spontaneous bifurcation of turbulence to high-confinement mode, solving a 35-year-old mystery. Image courtesy of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (Left) A typical plasma-density-fluctuation pattern from edge turbulence in a realistic tokamak geometry. The black line shows the magnetic separatrix surface with the magnetic X-point at the bottom. (Right) … Read more

Initial tests at UK pulsed power device

Initial tests at UK pulsed power device

WNN 29 August 2018 First Light Fusion (FLF) – a researcher of inertial confinement fusion – has successfully fired the first test ‘shot’ on one of the six limbs of its newly-constructed pulsed power device ‘Machine 3’. A rendering of Machine 3 (Image: FLF) FLF – based in Oxford, England – announced today that the … Read more

Scientists tame damaging plasma instabilities in fusion facilities

Scientists tame damaging plasma instabilities in fusion facilities

Space Daily Aug 23, 2018 Before scientists can capture and recreate the fusion process that powers the sun and stars to produce virtually limitless energy on Earth, they must first learn to control the hot plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. In a set of recent experiments, scientists have tamed a plasma instability in a … Read more

Higher plasma densities, more efficient tokamaks

Higher plasma densities, more efficient tokamaks

Phys.org August 21, 2018, US Department of Energy The left figure shows a large, asymmetric magnetic island, which bulges on the inside (that is, the blue arrow is longer than the red), that can lead to a disruption and end a plasma discharge. The right figure shows the empirical scaling law of the density limit … Read more

Optimized quasi-optical cross-polarization scattering system for the measurement of magnetic turbulence on the DIII-D tokamak

Optimized quasi-optical cross-polarization scattering system for the measurement of magnetic turbulence on the DIII-D tokamak

Review of Scientific Instruments 89, 10H107 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035427 T. L. Rhodes, R. Lantsov, G. Wang, R. Ellis, and W. A. Peebles Published Online: 23 August 2018 Accepted: June 2018 Abstract Simulations and laboratory tests are used to design and optimize a quasi-optical system for cross-polarization scattering (CPS) measurements of magnetic turbulence on the DIII-D tokamak. … Read more

Considerations of the q-profile control in KSTAR for advanced tokamak operation scenarios

Considerations of the q-profile control in KSTAR for advanced tokamak operation scenarios

Review of Scientific Instruments 89, 10D112 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035126 J. Chunga, J. Ko, S.-H. Hahn, H. S. Kim, and S. J. Wang Published Online: 21 August 2018 Accepted: June 2018 Abstract The q-profile control is essential for tokamaks exploring the advanced tokamak scenarios, which is expected to be able to provide a possible route toward a … Read more

27 – ITER’s $23B Fusion Project to Provide Cheap, Virtually Free Energy for the World with Director-General Bernard Bigot

27 – ITER’s B Fusion Project to Provide Cheap, Virtually Free Energy for the World with Director-General Bernard Bigot

FringeFM August 24, 2018 Bernard Bigot is the Director-General of the ITER Organization (@iterorg), an international fusion science and technology research facility based in France. Bernard has been closely associated with ITER since France’s bid to host the project in 2003 and Mr Bigot was delegated by the French government to act as High Representative … Read more

Pushing the plasma density limit

Pushing the plasma density limit

MIT Paul Rivenberg | Plasma Science and Fusion Center | August 23, 2018 Seung Gyou Baek and his colleagues performed experiments on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak to demonstrate how microwaves can be used to overcome barriers to steady-state fusion reactor operation. Photo: Paul Rivenberg/PSFC Plasma Science and Fusion Center researchers discover a path to overcoming … Read more