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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.
T. Imai et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 1-8
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11563
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent progress and near future plan of GAMMA 10 efforts are presented. With high power plug electron cyclotron heating (ECH) up to ~400 kW, the ion confining potential of more than 2 kV was confirmed. The drift type low frequency fluctuations were suppressed by the positive radial electric field produced by plug ECH. It is found that the efficient EC heating on mirror devices from a strong B field side requires the minimization of the stray microwave in addition to the 100% X-mode excitation to avoid the enhancement of the ion loss. The development of a gyrotron, the key tool of these ECH experiments, has been made in collaboration with NIFS (National Institute for Fusion Science), More than 1.5 MW for more than 1s has been demonstrated at 77GHz. The plan of the boundary plasma research program with modification of GAMMA 10 is in progress. The new program includes the physics and technology studies of the divertor and SOL plasmas and PWI relevant to torus plasmas like ITER. The high heat flux experiments using the open end mirror throat has been started and we have obtained successful preliminary data, which include the heat flux of 8 MW/m2.