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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
J. Miyazawa, S. Masuzaki, R. Sakamoto, B. J. Peterson, N. Tamura, M. Goto, M. Kobayashi, M. Shoji, T. Akiyama, H. Yamada, LHD Experiment Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 58 | Number 1 | July-August 2010 | Pages 200-207
Chapter 5. Divertor and Edge Physics | Special Issue on Large Helical Device (LHD) | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A10807
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Easy access to the high-density regime without fatal disruptive phenomena is one of the important characteristics of the Large Helical Device (LHD). The operational density is considerably higher than the Greenwald density limit for tokamak plasmas. The density limit in LHD is reached when the edge density at the last closed flux surface exceeds a value approximately equivalent to the Sudo density limit that increases with the square root of the heating power. Extremely high central density of >1 × 1021 m-3 is achievable with a peaked density profile, as long as the edge density is kept lower than the Sudo limit. Furthermore, the central heating power must be larger than the radiation loss in the core region to avoid the "cold-core" phenomenon. As for the plasma edge, complete detachment takes place when the edge density exceeds the limit. Then, reattachment/Serpens mode/radiative collapse will follow, depending on the recycling condition.