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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Steady-state spheromak

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6628549
A major effort is being made in the national program to make the operation of axisymmetric, toroidal confinement systems steady state by the application of expensive rf current drive. Described here is a method by which such a confinement system, the spheromak, can be refluxed indefinitely through the application of dc power. As a step towards dc sustainment we have operated the present CTX source in the slow source mode with a longer power application time (approx. 0.1 ms) and successfully generated long-lived spheromaks. If the erosion of the electrodes can be controlled as well as it is with MPD arcs then dc operation should be very clean. If only a small fraction (approx. 10% for an experiment) of the poloidal flux of the spheromak connects to the source then the dc sustainment can be very efficient. The amount of connecting flux that is necessary for sustainment needs to be determined experimentally.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
6628549
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-82-3309; CONF-821124-3; ON: DE83003572
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English