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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
M. R. Wade, T. C. Luce, J. Jayakumar, P. A. Politzer, C. C. Petty, M. Murakami, J. R. Ferron, A. W. Hyatt, A. C. C. Sips
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 2 | October 2005 | Pages 1199-1211
Technical Paper | DIII-D Tokamak - Advanced Tokamak Scenarios | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1071
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments in the DIII-D tokamak have demonstrated the ability to sustain ELMing H-mode discharges with high beta and good confinement quality under stationary conditions. These experiments have shown the ability to sustain normalized fusion performance (in terms of NH89P /q952) at or above that projected for Qfus = 10 operation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) design over a wide range in operating parameters. In the best cases, operation is maintained at the free boundary, n = 1 stability limit. Confinement is found to be better than standard H-mode confinement scalings over a wide range in operation space, and experimentally measured transport is consistent with predictions from the GLF23 transport code. Projections using the standard ITER H-mode scaling laws based on these discharges indicate that Qfus = 5 can be maintained for >5400 s in ITER at q95 = 4.5 while Qfus = 40 can be obtained for ~2400 s at q95 = 3.2. These projected performance levels further validate the ITER design and suggest that long-pulse, high neutron fluence operation as well as very high fusion gain operation may be possible in next-generation tokamaks.