Contributions of the "Saturn" to Modern Stellarator-Torsatron Research
Abstract
It has been 40 years since the startup and first plasma from the Saturn stellarator-torsatron. The l = 3 stellarator-torsatron "Saturn" was the first of a series of torsatron-like devices built in Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) in the 1970s: later appeared "Vint-20", "U-3", "U-3M". The Saturn device was used for comparative investigations on the same device two magnetic configurations in stellarator and torsatron regimes and for experimental examination of their effects on plasma confinement. The thorough measurements of magnetic structure in both regimes demonstrated their high equivalence. Investigations of torsatron without toroidal coils supported the principal possibility to have a spatial divertor configuration, which was later realized in U-3, the first torsatron with a divertor. The results on Saturn, obtained for the first time with a pure torsatron configuration, have opened the prospect for torsatrons to be an alternative to tokamaks in the development of a fusion reactor. After various magnetic configurations were studied, the Saturn device was used for providing investigations of confinement of injected hydrogen plasma and of ECR plasma in different gases. In this paper we summarize the main Saturn results and try to find the bridge between them and the present experiments on existing stellarator-type fusion devices with an aim to see what particular Saturn results were supported by those obtained later.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Funsion Energy
- Pub Date:
- August 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10894-010-9284-0
- Bibcode:
- 2010JFuE...29..399G
- Keywords:
-
- Stellarator;
- Torsatron;
- Plasma confinement;
- Drift waves;
- Divertor plasma flows