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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.
K. Lackner
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 4 | November 2008 | Pages 989-993
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1914
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To measure the reactor relevance of existing and planned confinement devices, we propose Bta5/4 and Pheata3/4 as dimensionless engineering parameters. These quantities - together with a density parameter that can be written as na3/4/Bt - have to be conserved in plasma physics identity experiments on different-size devices to respect the so-called Kadomtsev similarity constraints. They offer also a coordinate system to map the approach to the reactor regime. Theoretical and semiempirical models can be used in this coordinate space to produce isocontours for different dimensionless physics quantities, like the usual parameters *, *, and , but also for the intensity of collisional coupling, the excess of heating power over the L-H transition threshold, and the ratio of current redistribution to energy confinement time to visualize the distance to the regime of a fusion reactor.