Experiments with Liquid Metal Walls: Status of the Lithium Tokamak Experiment

Conference · Tue Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Fusion Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2010.04.005· OSTI ID:973198

Kaita, Robert; Boyle, Dennis; Gray, Timothy; Granstedt, Erik; Hammett, Gregory; Jacobson, Craig M; Jones, Andrew; Kozub, Thomas; Kugel, Henry; Leblanc, Benoit; Logan, Nicholas; Lucia, Matthew; Lundberg, Daniel; Majeski, Richard; Mansfield, Dennis; Menard, Jonathan; Spaleta, Jeffrey; Strickler, Trevor; Timberlak, John

Liquid metal walls have been proposed to address the first wall challenge for fusion reactors. The Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is the first magnetic confinement device to have liquid metal plasma-facing components (PFC's) that encloses virtually the entire plasma. In the Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade (CDX-U), a predecessor to LTX at PPPL, the highest improvement in energy confinement ever observed in Ohmically-heated tokamak plasmas was achieved with a toroidal liquid lithium limiter. The LTX extends this liquid lithium PFC by using a conducting conformal shell that almost completely surrounds the plasma. By heating the shell, a lithium coating on the plasma-facing side can be kept liquefied. A consequence of the low-recycling conditions from liquid lithium walls is the need for efficient plasma fueling. For this purpose, a molecular cluster injector is being developed. Future plans include the installation of a neutral beam for core plasma fueling, and also ion temperature measurements using charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy. Low edge recycling is also predicted to reduce temperature gradients that drive drift wave turbulence. Gyrokinetic simulations are in progress to calculate fluctuation levels and transport for LTX plasmas, and new fluctuation diagnostics are under development to test these predictions. __________________________________________________

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-ACO2-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 973198
• Report Number(s): PPPL-4496; TRN: US1001709
• Journal Information: Fusion Engineering and Design, Vol. 85, Issue 6; Conference: 2nd NIFS-CRC Symposium on Plasma Surface Interactions, Toki, Japan, (January 2010); ISSN 0920-3796
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGE EXCHANGE
COATINGS
CONFINEMENT
FIRST WALL
FLUCTUATIONS
HEATING
ION TEMPERATURE
LIQUID METALS
LITHIUM
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
MOLECULAR CLUSTERS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
RECOMBINATION
RECYCLING
SPECTROSCOPY
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TRANSPORT
TURBULENCE
Low-aspect ratio tokamaks
lithium plasma-vacing components
low-recycling plasma
fusion reactor first walls
plasma fueling