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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.
J.T. Hogan, A. Martynov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 322-326
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40180
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In view of the preliminary nature of boundary models for reactor tokamaks, the sensitivity to edge gradients of the global mode MHD stability of the ITER EDA configuration has been examined. The POLAR-2D equilibrium and TORUS stability codes developed by the Keldysh Institute have been used. Transport-related profiles from the PRETOR transport code (developed by the ITER Joint Central Team) and axisymmetric equilibria for these profiles from the TEQ code (L.D. Pearlstein, LLNL) were taken as a starting point for the study. These baseline profiles are found to have quite high global stability limits, in the range g(Troyon) = 4 – 5. The major focus of this study is to examine global mode stability assuming small variations about the baseline profiles, changing the pressure gradients near the boundary. Such changes can be expected with an improved boundary model. Reduced stability limits are found in such cases, and unstable cases with g=2–3 are found. Thus, the assumption of ITER stability limits higher than g=2 must be treated with caution.
