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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.
Ren-Chu Chin, Shih-Hai Li
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 255-260
Technical Paper | Plasma Heating System | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30329
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The physical constraints on the scaling law of global energy confinement time have been derived based on a set of weakly relativistic collisional/collisionless Maxwell-Vlasov equations. A total of 106 L-mode electron cyclotron heating (ECH) data were selected from the T-10 and DIII-D tokamaks. These data, through statistical regression analysis, were processed to obtain the scaling law. The resultant scaling becomes if the collisional physical constraint is imposed. The scaling passed the statistical test and was found to describe the database well. Hence, the weakly relativistic collisional model is suggested to be adequate to depict the ECH mechanism.