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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
R. Keppens, J. P. Goedbloed, J. W. S. Blokland
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 2 | February 2010 | Pages 137-147
Equilibrium and Instabilities | Proceedings of the Ninth Carolus Magnus Summer School on Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9404
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The magnetohydrodynamic model for fusion plasma dynamics governs the large-scale equilibrium properties, and sets the most stringent constraints on the parameter space accessible without violent disruptions. In conjunction with linear stability analysis in the complex tokamak geometry, the MHD paradigm is also routinely being used to diagnose recurring wave modes and identify potential MHD mode triggers of consequent non-MHD phenomena. On the other hand, it is currently computationally feasible to perform fully nonlinear simulations in tokamak geometry, and determine nonlinear, long-term (i.e. on resistive time scales) evolutions for individual MHD dominated plasma scenarios. It can be expected that this success continues its evolution towards a fully integrated computational analysis of the experimental campaigns, certainly in view of the desired steady-state self-burning plasmas.