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Title: DT and DHe/sup 3/ tokamak test reactor concepts using advanced, high field superconductors

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5332474

If practical high temperature superconducting ceramic magnets can be developed, there could be a significant impact on reactor design. Potential advantages include a simpler, more robust magnet design, the possibility of demountable superconducting toroidal field coils and reduced shielding requirements. The high temperature superconductors can also have very high critical fields and could provide super high field operation. This could substantially increase eta tau/sub E/ values, reduce ..beta.. requirements, and improve prospects for ohmic heating to ignition. The combination of moderately high ..beta.. and super high field could make DHe/sup 3/ operation possible in a JET size tokamak. In this paper we discuss possibilities for test reactor designs using high temperature high field superconductors. An illustrative design has a field at the plasma of 15 T. This reduces the required ..beta.. to less than 2% for DT operation. The required plasma current is 5 MA. For a reactor size of R/sub 0/ = 3.4m and a = 0.6m, the neutron wall loading is 3.3 MW/m/sup 2/ at ..beta.. = 1.5% for DT operation and an equal amount of fusion power is produced at ..beta.. = 10% for DHe/sup 3/ operation. One possible mode of operation is to use ohmic heating to ignition in a DT plasma followed by thermal runaway to DHe/sup 3/ temperatures. 7 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Plasma Fusion Center
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-78ET51013
OSTI ID:
5332474
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/51013-234; PFC/CP-87-15; CONF-871007-89; ON: DE88006260
Resource Relation:
Conference: 12. symposium on fusion engineering, Monterey, CA, USA, 12 Oct 1987
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English