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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Thomas Hladschik, Klaus Schoepf
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 588-592
Plasma Heating and Current Drive, Plasma Engineering | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40221
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In ITER the main loss mechanism of fast fusion alpha particles is expected to be due to toroidal field (TF) ripples caused by the finite number of TF coils. The associated radial diffusion of fast alphas is specified by an energy and space dependent diffusion coefficient which can be extended to account also for toroidal Alfven eigenmode (TAE) diffusion. Energy transfer from the fast alphas to the thermal background plasma is considered to occur due to Coulomb collisions and nuclear elastic scattering (NES). The α-transport is described here by a reduced slowing down kinetic equation of which the numerical solution provides for the energy-, space- and time-dependent alpha particle distribution in the tokamak plasma. This alpha distribution then constitutes the basis for a determinative calculation of the actual fusion power allocation to each distinct background species. Though TAE diffusion alone is not a significant fusion power loss mechanism, our recent calculations indicate that the coaction of TF-ripple (TFR) and TAE transport processes synergisticly results in a substantial reduction of fusion alpha power deposition.