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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.
Eriko Jotaki, Satoshi Itoh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 2 | March 1995 | Pages 171-175
Technical Paper | Special Section: Pulsed High-Density Systems / Instrumentation and Data Handling | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30373
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Long discharges have been demonstrated by lower hybrid current-drive experiments on some tokamak devices. Discharges of longer than 1000 s are also planned for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) projects. In the case of long-time or steady-state operation, it is important to monitor the plasma parameters continuously and change the operational conditions during the discharge to maintain the plasma current. However, a conventional data acquisition and analysis system cannot follow these operations because it must show the results after each pulse. A new system that can continuously monitor and support steady-state operation is necessary. A new system is developed in which the signal flow is divided into branches, and one series of processing is made to switch alternately among the groups in every regular desired interval. An application of this system has been demonstrated on a 1-h discharge by TRIAM-1M.