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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.
V. P. Pastukhov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 138-143
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A625
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Divertor stabilization is considered as an alternative MHD stability concept for mirror-based plasma confinement systems. The discussed concept is based on thermodynamics and self-organization of magnetized plasmas, contrary to the conventional MHD stabilization, based on the presence of averaged "magnetic well". We show that self-organized plasma maintenance near a relaxed marginally-stable state with decreasing pressure profile can be realized in essentially non-paraxial longitudinally linked mirror cells restricted by a joint divertorlike magnetic separatrix with one or several magnetic field nulls at the plasma edge. Brief history, basic principles, and main advantages of the divertor stabilization concept are discussed.