Cost assessment of a generic magnetic fusion reactor

A generic magnetic fusion reactor model is used to determine the conditions under which electricity generation from fusion would be economically viable. The use of a generic model helps to circumvent problems associated with present perceptions of magnetic configurations. It helps also to decouple those limitations set by generic constraints such as nuclear cross sections from those set by the state of development today. The model shows that only moderate advances are required in reactor characteristics over current designs to make an economically attractive magnetic fusion reactor

Requirements for neutral beam current drive in tokamaks

This paper contains viewgraphs on the use of neutral beam current drive in future tokamaks. Current profiles, slowing down distributions, beam destabilization of alfven waves and plasma parameters are some items covered in this paper. (DWL

Optimization of confinement in toroidal systems: studies of tokamaks and ELMO Bumpy Torus

A brief listing is given of theoretical studies being carried out at ORNL on tokamaks and the ELMO Bumpy Torus. (MOW

Physics assessment of neutral beam injection in CIT

The large existing NBI database and our understanding of beam physics indicates that high energy neutral beams could be a very attractive back-up option for CIT because: flexibility of the heating profile is possible even with very restricted access; co-injection may provide an extra benefit in impurity control; and access to enhanced confinement regimes, e.g., H-Mode. High energy beam technology development should be pursued so that CIT could take advantage of these beneficial aspects of NBI

Ripple bundle divertor for tokamaks

The bundle divertor, designed for density and impurity control, has been successfully applied on the DITE tokamak. In this application it is subject to high stresses and is restricted to short pulses and low toroidal fields. A new version is made possible by fitting the vacuum vessel close to the toroidal coils. This allows the plasma to exist in the outer regions of higher toroidal field ripple. This ripple bundle divertor should operate at lower stresses and for longer pulses at higher magnetic fields

ELMO Bumpy Torus

The present understanding of equilibrium, stability, and transport in EBT suggests a sequence of research and development activities aimed at a full-scale reactor. The EBT program includes an aggressive development effort for high-power millimeter CW microwave sources based on the Cyclotron Resonant Maser principle. The existing physics evidence suggests that the EBT approach can be extended to confine steady-state, high-beta (toroidal) plasmas. If this extension is demonstrated, then EBT offers an attractive alternative to the tokamak and magnetic mirror for controlled thermonuclear fusion. Some of the critical scientific and technology factors that require resolution as preconditions to reactor feasibility are listed. (MHR

Hybrid equilibrium field coils for the ORNL TNS

In this study, we make a comparative study of the power supplies required by interior and exterior (to the toroidal field (TF) coils) equilibrium field coils that are separately appropriate for high-..beta.., D-shaped plasmas in TNS. It is shown that the interior coils need power supplies that are an order of magnitude below those required by the exterior coils (while the latter case is much less difficult to build than the former). A hybrid EF coil concept is proposed that combines the interior and the exterior coils to retain their advantages in avoiding large interior coils while lowering the power supplied to the exterior coils by an order of magnitude