Recent progress in tokamak experiments
Abstract
Tokamak experiments have recently demonstrated confinement times, ion temperatures and plasma densities that suggest the approach to useful fusion energy production. Supplementary heating is needed to reach reactor conditions; compressional, rf and neutral-beam injection techniques have been studied for this purpose. In addition, disruptive instabilities, Mirnov oscillations and internal disruptions must be controlled to maintain a macroscopically stable plasma. The control of plasma purity, the development of superconducting coils, and improvements in the efficiency of high-voltage beams are among the requirements for the evolution of useful reactors.
- Publication:
-
Physics Today
- Pub Date:
- May 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.2995551
- Bibcode:
- 1979PhT....32e..25M
- Keywords:
-
- Plasma Control;
- Technology Assessment;
- Tokamak Devices;
- Toroidal Plasmas;
- Fusion Reactors;
- Ion Temperature;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Neutral Beams;
- Plasma Density;
- Plasma Heating;
- Research And Development;
- Scaling Laws;
- Plasma Physics