Magnetic equilibrium design for the SMART tokamak

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) device is a new compact (plasma major radius R≥0.40 m, minor radius a≥0.20 m, aspect ratio A≥1.7) spherical tokamak, currently in development at the University of Seville. The SMART device has been designed to achieve a magnetic field at the plasma center of up to B=1.0 T with plasma currents up to I=500 kA and a pulse length up to τ=500 ms. A wide range of plasma shaping configurations are envisaged, including triangularities between −0.50≤δ≤0.50 and elongations of κ≤2.25. Control of plasma shaping is achieved through four axially variable poloidal field coils (PF), and four fixed divertor (Div) coils, nominally allowing operation in lower-single null, upper-single null and double-null configurations. This work examines phase 2 of the SMART device, presenting a baseline reference equilibrium and two highly-shaped triangular equilibria. The relevant PF and Div coil current waveforms are also presented. Equilibria are obtained via an axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov force balance solver (Fiesta), in combination with a circuit equation rigid current displacement model (RZIp) to obtain time-resolved vessel and plasma currents.The authors would like to thank the VEST team for their technical and engineering support. This work received funding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) by the European Commission under grant agreement numbers IE17-5670 and US-15570. In addition support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 805162) is gratefully acknowledged

Mechanical and electromagnetic design of the vacuum vessel of the SMART tokamak

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) is a new spherical device that is currently being designed at the University of Seville. SMART is a compact machine with a plasma major radius (R) greater than 0.4 m, plasma minor radius (a) greater than 0.2 m, an aspect ratio (A) over than 1.7 and an elongation (k) of more than 2. It will be equipped with 4 poloidal field coils, 4 divertor field coils, 12 toroidal field coils and a central solenoid. The heating system comprises of a Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) of 600 kW and an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) of 6 kW for pre-ionization. SMART has been designed for a plasma current (I) of 500 kA, a toroidal magnetic field (B) of 1 T and a pulse length of 500 ms preserving the compactness of the machine. The free boundary equilibrium solver code FIESTA [1] coupled to the linear time independent, rigid plasma model RZIP [2] has been used to calculate the target equilibria taking into account the physics goals, the required plasma parameters, vacuum vessel structures and power supply requirements. We present here the final design of the SMART vacuum vessel together with the Finite Element Model (FEM) analysis carried out to ensure that the tokamak vessel provides high quality vacuum and plasma performance withstanding the electromagnetic j×B loads caused by the interaction between the eddy currents induced in the vessel itself and the surrounding magnetic fields. A parametric model has been set up for the topological optimization of the vessel where the thickness of the wall has been locally adapted to the expected forces. An overview of the new machine is presented here.This work received funding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) by the European Commission under grant agreement numbers IE17-5670 and US-15570. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission

Electromagnetic VDE and Disruption Analysis in the SMART Tokamak

The SMall aspect ratio tokamak (SMART) is a new spherical device, that is, currently being constructed at the University of Seville. The operation of SMART will cover three phases reaching a maximum plasma current ( $I_{P}$ ) of 400 kA, a toroidal magnetic field ( $B_{T}$ ) of 1 T, and a pulse length of 500 ms. Such operating conditions present notable challenges to the design and verification of SMARTs structural integrity during normal and off-normal operations. In particular, vertical displacement events (VDEs) and disruptions (Boozer, 2012) are most important as they can cause severe damage to the components directly exposed to the plasma due to the significant electromagnetic (EM) and thermal loads delivered over ms timescales. As a consequence, a detailed evaluation of the EM loads during plasma disruptions is mandatory for the correct dimensioning of the machine, in particular the vacuum vessel. The EM loads are mainly produced by: the poloidal flux variation during the thermal and current quench, halo currents (Boozer, 2013) that flow into the vacuum vessel and interacts with the toroidal magnetic field; and toroidal flux variation during the thermal and current quench. We present, here, the EM and structural analysis performed for the design of SMART. The modeling has been carried out by combining equilibrium scenarios obtained through the FIESTA code (Cunningham, 2013), estimating VDE and disruption time-scales by comparing other machines (Chen et al. 2015), (Hender et al. 2007), and (Bachmann et al. 2011) and computing EM forces through a finite element model (FEM) taking into account the effects of both eddy and halo currents (Roccella et al. 2008), (Titus et al. 2011), and (Ortwein et al. 2020). Finally, the structural assessment of the vacuum vessel is performed in order to verify its integrity during normal and off-normal events in phase 3.10.13039/501100000780-Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) through the European Commission (Grant Number: IE17-5670 and US-15570

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Single and double null equilibria in the SMART Tokamak

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) device is a novel, compact (R = 0.42 m, a = 0.22 m, A 1.70) spherical tokamak, currently under development at the University of Seville. The SMART device is being developed over 3 phases, with target on-axis toroidal magnetic fields between 0.1 ≼ B ≼ 1.0 T, and target plasma currents of between 35 ≼ I ≼ 400 kA; with phases 2 and 3 enabling access to a wide range of elongations (κ ≼ 2.30) and triangularities (− 0.50 ≼ δ ≼ 0.50). SMART employs four internal divertor coils with two internal and two external poloidal field coils, enabling operation in lower-single, upper-single and double-null configurations. This work examines phase 3 of the SMART device, presenting a prospective L-mode discharge scenario without external heating, before examining five highly-shaped equilibria, including: two double null triangular configurations, two single null triangular configurations and a baseline double null configuration. All equilibria are obtained via an axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov force balance solver (Fiesta), in combination with a circuit equation rigid current displacement model (RZIp) to obtain time-resolved vessel and plasma currents.The authors would like to thank the VEST team for their technical and engineering support. This work received funding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) by the European Commission under grant agreement numbers IE17-5670 and US-15570. In addition support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 805 162) is gratefully acknowledged

Genetic Variation of Citrus Tristeza Virus Isolates from California and Spain: Evidence for Mixed Infections and Recombination

We examined the population structure and genetic variation of four genomic regions within and between 30 Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) isolates from Spain and California. Our analyses showed that most isolates contained a population of sequence variants, with one being predominant. Four isolates showed two major sequence variants in some genomic regions. The two major variants of three of these isolates showed very low nucleotide identity to each other but were very similar to those of other isolates, suggesting the possibility of mixed infections with two divergent isolates. Incongruencies of phylogenetic relationships in the different genomic regions and statistical analyses suggested that the genomes of some CTV sequence variants originated by recombination events between diverged sequence variants. No correlation was observed between geographic origin and nucleotide distance, and thus from a genetic view, the Spanish and Californian isolates analyzed here could be considered members of the same population

Bureaucratic Compliance with Mexico's New Access to Information Law

We analyze government document custodians' attitudes and behaviors in order to assess the prospects of a new access to information law establishing a citizen's right-to-know in Mexico. The Mexican law is considered one of the best in the hemisphere in terms of broad access and workable enforcement provisions. However, no extra resources were allotted to government agencies for compliance with the law; the country's traditional bureaucratic incentive structures support closure rather than access; and bureaucrats' views on the uses of government information prior to democratization suggest an instrumental approach guided organizational incentives rather than generalized support for either secrecy or access as a principle. We argue that missing or unclear political will at the top is the strongest challenge to Mexico's emerging right to know