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Helical Confinement Concepts

Abstract

Stellarators, conceived 1951 by Lyman Spitzer in Princeton, are toroidal devices that confine a plasma in a magnetic field which originates from currents in coils outside the plasma. A plasma current driven by external means, for example by an ohmic transformer, is not required for confinement. Supplying the desired poloidal field component by external coils leads to a helically structured plasma topology. Thus stellarators - or helical confinement devices - are fully three-dimensional in contrast to the toroidal (rotational) symmetry of tokamaks. As stellarators can be free of an inductive current, whose radial distribution depends on the plasma parameters, their equilibrium must not be established via the evolving plasma itself, but to a first order already given by the vacuum magnetic field. They do not need an active control (like positional feedback) and therefore cannot suffer from its failure. The outstanding conceptual advantage of stellarators is the potential of steady state plasma operation without current drive. As there is no need for current drive, the recirculating power is expected to be smaller than in equivalent tokamaks. The lack of a net current avoids current driven instabilities; specifically, no disruptions, no resistive wall modes and no conventional or neoclassical tearing modes  More>>
Authors:
Beidler, C; Brakel, R; Burhenn, R; Dinklage, A; Erckmann, V; Feng, Y; Geiger, J; Hartmann, D; Hirsch, M; Jaenicke, R; Koenig, R; Laqua, H P; Maassberg, H; Wagner, F; Weller, A; Wobig, H [1] 
  1. Max-Planck Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, EURATOM Association, Greifswald (Germany)
Publication Date:
Sep 15, 2012
Product Type:
Book
Resource Relation:
Other Information: 47 figs., 4 tabs., 225 refs.; Related Information: In: Fusion Physics| by Kikuchi, Mitsuru; Lackner, Karl; Tran, Minh Quang (eds.)| 1158 p.
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; CONTROL; DESIGN; DIVERTORS; ELECTRIC CURRENTS; IMPURITIES; MAGNETIC FIELDS; NEOCLASSICAL TRANSPORT THEORY; PLASMA; PLASMA CONFINEMENT; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS; STELLARATORS; TEARING INSTABILITY; THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS; TOKAMAK DEVICES; TOPOLOGY; TRANSFORMERS; WALLS
OSTI ID:
22028538
Research Organizations:
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
Country of Origin:
IAEA
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ISBN 978-92-0-130410-0; TRN: XA12R0292116804
Availability:
Also available on-line: http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1562_web.pdf; Enquiries should be addressed to IAEA, Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section, E-mail: sales.publications@iaea.org; Web site: http://www.iaea.org/books
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 847-957
Announcement Date:
Jan 24, 2013

Citation Formats

Beidler, C, Brakel, R, Burhenn, R, Dinklage, A, Erckmann, V, Feng, Y, Geiger, J, Hartmann, D, Hirsch, M, Jaenicke, R, Koenig, R, Laqua, H P, Maassberg, H, Wagner, F, Weller, A, and Wobig, H. Helical Confinement Concepts. IAEA: N. p., 2012. Web.
Beidler, C, Brakel, R, Burhenn, R, Dinklage, A, Erckmann, V, Feng, Y, Geiger, J, Hartmann, D, Hirsch, M, Jaenicke, R, Koenig, R, Laqua, H P, Maassberg, H, Wagner, F, Weller, A, & Wobig, H. Helical Confinement Concepts. IAEA.
Beidler, C, Brakel, R, Burhenn, R, Dinklage, A, Erckmann, V, Feng, Y, Geiger, J, Hartmann, D, Hirsch, M, Jaenicke, R, Koenig, R, Laqua, H P, Maassberg, H, Wagner, F, Weller, A, and Wobig, H. 2012. "Helical Confinement Concepts." IAEA.
@misc{etde_22028538,
title = {Helical Confinement Concepts}
author = {Beidler, C, Brakel, R, Burhenn, R, Dinklage, A, Erckmann, V, Feng, Y, Geiger, J, Hartmann, D, Hirsch, M, Jaenicke, R, Koenig, R, Laqua, H P, Maassberg, H, Wagner, F, Weller, A, and Wobig, H}
abstractNote = {Stellarators, conceived 1951 by Lyman Spitzer in Princeton, are toroidal devices that confine a plasma in a magnetic field which originates from currents in coils outside the plasma. A plasma current driven by external means, for example by an ohmic transformer, is not required for confinement. Supplying the desired poloidal field component by external coils leads to a helically structured plasma topology. Thus stellarators - or helical confinement devices - are fully three-dimensional in contrast to the toroidal (rotational) symmetry of tokamaks. As stellarators can be free of an inductive current, whose radial distribution depends on the plasma parameters, their equilibrium must not be established via the evolving plasma itself, but to a first order already given by the vacuum magnetic field. They do not need an active control (like positional feedback) and therefore cannot suffer from its failure. The outstanding conceptual advantage of stellarators is the potential of steady state plasma operation without current drive. As there is no need for current drive, the recirculating power is expected to be smaller than in equivalent tokamaks. The lack of a net current avoids current driven instabilities; specifically, no disruptions, no resistive wall modes and no conventional or neoclassical tearing modes appear. Second order pressure-driven currents (Pfirsch-Schlueter, bootstrap) exist but they can be modified and even minimized by the magnetic design. The magnetic configuration of helical devices naturally possesses a separatrix, which allows the implementation of a helically structured divertor for exhaust and impurity control. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2012}
month = {Sep}
}