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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
Michael G. Shats, Hua Xia, Horst Punzmann, Wayne M. Solomon
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 46 | Number 2 | September 2004 | Pages 279-287
Technical Papers | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A566
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An overview of recent results related to the physics of turbulent structure generation and their interactions in the H-1 heliac is presented. In particular, the role of zonal flows, or time-varying shear radial electric fields, in anomalous transport and confinement transitions is investigated. It is shown that large-scale coherent structures, including zonal flows, are generated through an inverse energy cascade from the unstable spectral range. Once developed, zonal flows affect other turbulent structures and reduce the particle transport driven by them. The phase randomization of coherent structures by zonal flows is shown to be responsible for reducing the anomalous transport. Zonal flows are also shown to act as precursors during spontaneous low-to-high transitions in H-1.