Plasma Engineering Innovations for the ORNL TNS Reactor
- ORNL
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Recent plasma engineering studies have ascertained a viable concept for The Next Step (TNS) reactor based on medium toroidal fields between 4 T and 7 T at the plasma center, plasma {bar {beta}} values up to 10% and averaged densities between 0.6 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3} and 2.5 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3}. Plasma engineering innovations that can substantially reduce the size, cost, and complexity of the TNS reactor have been explored and are summarized in this paper. It is shown that the previously anticipated requirement of high pellet velocities can be substantially reduced; the toroidal field (TF) ripple requirements may be relaxed to reduce the number of TF coils and improve machine access; hybrid equilibrium field (EF) coils have been shown to require building only small interior coils and to reduce the power supply required by the exterior coils; proper approaches of microwave plasma preheating nay reduce the peak loop voltage for start-up by an order of magnitude. The medium-field TNS reactor concepts and the plasma engineering innovations discussed should be applicable to other designs of tokamak reactors; some of the suggested innovations will be tested In upcoming experiments.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1024784
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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