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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.
Y. Liang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 3 | April 2011 | Pages 586-601
Lecture | Fourth ITER International Summer School (IISS2010) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11699
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The next generation of fusion machines like ITER and DEMO will need a reliable method for controlling the periodic transient expulsion of a considerable amount of energy onto the plasma-facing components caused by instabilities at the plasma edge. The good plasma confinement in these tokamak devices will result in a steepened pressure profile at the plasma edge. When the pressure gradient exceeds a critical value, so-called edge-localized modes (ELMs) are destabilized. These modes feature a periodic fast collapse of the edge pressure, a sudden loss of the confinement, and a subsequent release of heat and particles onto plasma-facing components. The associated transient heat loads might cause excess erosion and lead to a strong reduction of the plasma-facing component lifetime. In this lecture, an overview of recent development of several ELM control methods for next-generation tokamaks, e.g., ITER is given. Some key physics issues related to the mechanism of ELM control are discussed.