On going and planned D-T experiments on TFTR
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab., NJ (United States)
In the first phase of deuterium-tritium (D-T) experiments on TFTR, routine D-T operation was established to permit quantitative evaluation of the characteristics of D-T plasmas relative to those of comparable D-D plasmas. It was immediately observed that the isotope effect gave a significant increase in the overall energy confinement in D-T plasma relative to that of the D-D plasma. Energy confinement has been increased to over 0.3 sec in the supershot (peaked density, hot-ion mode) regime in TFTR with aggressive lithium conditioning. As a result, the fusion performance is no longer limited by confinement but is now limited by instability driven by high central pressure ({beta}) and by high pressure gradients. A series of experiments have been undertaken in the reverse shear (RS) and high internal inductance (high I{sub i}) regimes to enhance core stability. On-going experiments are directed toward further enhancing the performance in the reverse shear regime at higher plasma current and toroidal magnetic field in order to enhance fusion performance and especially alpha particle density to support alpha particle physics studies. To further augment the efforts to optimize the performance in the reverse shear mode, localized ICRF heating and current drive in the mode conversion (MC) regime is to be employed. The 30 MHz system will permit MC operation in the D-T regime and also will support alpha interaction studies. Antenna upgrades are planned in the near future to improve the MC spectrum for better current profile control and to provide IBW transport barrier formation for better pressure control.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03073
- OSTI ID:
- 428016
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960634-; TRN: IM9708%%345
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1996 IEEE international conference on plasma science, Boston, MA (United States), 3-5 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of IEEE conference record -- Abstracts: 1996 IEEE international conference on plasma science; PB: 324 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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