Enhanced plasma performance in C-2W advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration experiments

Journal Article · Fri Aug 23 00:00:00 UTC 2024 · Nuclear Fusion

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad4536 · OSTI ID:2441289

Gota, H.  ^[1]; Smirnov, A.; Binderbauer, M. W. ; Tajima, T.; Putvinski, S.; Titus, J. B. ; Nations, M. ; Roche, T. ; Trask, E. ; DeHaas, T. ; Dettrick, S. A. ; Granstedt, E. M. ; Gupta, D. K. ; Gupta, S. ; Ivanov, A. A.; Korepanov, S. ; Magee, R. M. ; Matsumoto, T. ; Romero, J. A. ; Yushmanov, P. ; Zhai, K. ; Schmitz, L. ; Lin, Z. ; Krasheninnikov, S. ; Baltz, E. A. ; Platt, J. C. ; Belova, E. V. ; Asai, T. ; Smolyakov, A. I. ; Abdollahi, S.; Abramov, S.; Alexander, A.; Allfrey, I. ; Andow, R.; Barnes, D. C.; Barnett, B.; Barrett, J. ; Beall, M. ; Bolte, N. G. ; Bomgardner, E.; Bondarenko, A. ; Brighenti, F.; Buttery, J.; Caton, S.; Ceccherini, F. ; Choi, Y.; Clary, R. ; Cooper, A.; Deng, C. ; de Vera, A.; Drobny, J.; Dunaevsky, A.; Exton, C.; Fareed, A. ; Feng, P.; Finucane, C.; Fluegge, D.; Fontanilla, A.; Fujiwara, Y.; Galeotti, L. ; Galkin, S. ; Groenewald, R. ; Hsyu, T.; Hubbard, K.; Jaber, R. ; Jian, L.; Kafle, N. ; Kamio, S. ; Karbashewski, S. ; Kinley, J. S.; Korepanov, A.; Koumarianou, G. ; Krause, S. ; Kudrin, P.; Lau, C. K. ; Leinweber, H.; Leuenberger, J.; Lieurance, D.; Litton, M. ; Luna, R.; Luong, R.; MacFarlane, J. ; Madura, D.; Margo, J.; Marshall, D. ; Matvienko, V.; Meekins, M.; Melian, W.; Mendoza, R. ; Michel, R.; Morehouse, M.; Musthafa, Y.; Nazarenko, S.; Necas, A.; Nicks, B. S. ; Nwoke, N.; Ohshima, S. ; Onofri, M. ; Page, R.; Park, J.; Parke, E. ; Patel, S. ; Pennings, L.; Phung, K. ; Player, G. ; Rios, L.; Sato, I.; Schroeder, J. H.; Shimabukuro, Y.; Showers, M.; Sibley, A.; Signorelli, M.; Slepchenkov, M.; Smith, R. J. ; Snitchler, G.; Sokolov, V. ; Solyakov, D.; Song, Y.; Sporer, B. ; Steinhauer, L. C. ; Stonier, C. ; Stratta, A.; Sweeney, J.; Tobin, M. ; Tuszewski, M.; Ufnal, J.; Valentine, T.; Vargas, S.; Van Drie, A. D. ; Vekselman, V.; Veksler, A.; Weixel, C.; White, C.; Wollenberg, M.; Wood, J. ; Zhou, Y.; Ziaei, S.

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1. TAE Technologies, Inc., Foothill Ranch, CA (United States); et al.

TAE Technologies’ fifth-generation fusion device, C-2W (also called ‘Norman’), is the world’s largest compact-toroid device and has made significant progress in field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma performance. C-2W produces record breaking, macroscopically stable, high-temperature advanced beam-driven FRC plasmas, dominated by injected fast particles and sustained in steady state, which is primarily limited by neutral-beam (NB) pulse duration. The NB power supply system has recently been upgraded to extend the pulse length from 30 ms to 40 ms, which allows for a longer plasma lifetime and thus better characterization and further enhancement of FRC performance. An active plasma control system is routinely used in C-2W to produce consistent FRC performance as well as for reliable machine operations using magnet coils, edge-biasing electrodes, gas injection and tunable-energy NBs. Google’s machine learning framework for experimental optimization has also been routinely used to enhance plasma performance. D

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Contributing Organization: TAE Team
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 2441289
• Journal Information: Nuclear Fusion, Journal Name: Nuclear Fusion Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 64; ISSN 0029-5515
• Publisher: IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English