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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.
Kenichi Kurihara
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 22 | Number 3 | November 1992 | Pages 334-349
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST22-334-349
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method to identify the shape of tokamak plasmas with a Legendre-Fourier expansion of the vacuum poloidal flux function in toroidal coordinates is improved for the JT-60 Upgrade plasmas. These are pulse plasma discharges that have different sizes, positions, shapes, and internal quantities. The method is based on an analytical solution of the Grad-Shafranov equation in a vacuum region using toroidal coordinates. Although many identification methods previously proposed allow very small perturbations of certain parameters of the nominal plasma, the method presented here can relax the identification restriction on plasmas. Hence, it is applicable to accurate feedback control and real-time visualization of various plasma configurations.