Driving rotamak currents with minimal power dissipation
The Rotamak is a proposed thermonuclear fusion device which employs rotating magnetic fields (RMF) to generate an azimuthal current to produce a field-reversed configuration. The efficiency of the currents that produce the field reversal by RMFs was debated some 40 years ago. The debate revolved around whether the currents would incur dissipation by the conventional Spitzer perpendicular resistivity, or whether some other relation between current and dissipation would be more appropriate. By employing an electron–ion pitch-angle scattering model, we find that the dissipation is non-Spitzer in nature. However, curiously, there appears to exist a regime where the power dissipated to maintain the current becomes vanishingly small.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-09CH11466; SC0016072
- OSTI ID:
- 1856192
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 28; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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