Passive vertical stability in the next generation tokamaks

Conference · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · Fusion Technol.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6277524

Lever, J A

The next generation of reactor-size tokamaks will have substantially different vertical stability characteristics than existing large-scale experimental devices. Separation between plasma and stabilizing elements such as vacuum vessel and poloidal field coils is expected to be much greater than in present experiments, and high plasma elongation will be required for high plasma current and good plasma confinement. These features exacerbate the vertical stability control problems. The passive stability properties, growth rate, and stability margin of a plasma moving vertically in a set of toroidally continuous, resistive, current carrying elements is presented. An eigenvector analysis method is used to explore the vertical stability margin and growth rates of these equilibria. These methods are applied to quantify the passive stability properties of a large-scale fusion device, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). Representative plasma equilibria with plasma elongations varying from 1.6 to 2.4 are produced based on reactor-type scaling laws. The results show that a highly elongated plasma can be stabilized within acceptable limits with the proper placement of a toroidally continuous wall around the outer portion of the plasma. use of a partial poloidal all is almost as effective as enclosing the plasma in a complete shell.

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US)
• OSTI ID: 6277524
• Report Number(s): CONF-881031-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Fusion Technol.; (United States) Journal Volume: 15:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700200 -- Fusion Energy-- Fusion Power Plant Technology
700202* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Magnet Coils & Fields
CONFINEMENT
DATA
DIVERTORS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
EXPERIMENTAL REACTORS
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANNING
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA WAVES
POLOIDAL FIELD DIVERTORS
REACTORS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SCALING LAWS
SIZE
STABILITY
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TOKAMAK TYPE REACTORS
VACUUM SYSTEMS