Concepedia

Chapter 9: Opportunities for reactor scale experimental physics

ITER Physics Basis Editors, ITER Physics Expert Group Chairs an Co-Chairs, ITER Joint Central Team and Physics Unit

Nuclear Fusion · 1999 · 66 citations · 38 references

TL;DR

A reactor‑scale tokamak plasma will exhibit three areas of physics phenomenology not accessible by contemporary experimental facilities: instabilities from energetic alpha particles, self‑heating phenomena, and reactor‑scale physics integrating diverse phenomena with distinct scaling properties. The study presents selected examples to demonstrate the importance and uniqueness of physics results obtainable from reactor‑scale facilities for both inductive and steady‑state reactor options. The authors illustrate these areas by selecting representative examples that highlight the distinct physics accessible at reactor scale. It is concluded that the physics learned in such investigations will be original physics not attainable with contemporary facilities.

Abstract

A reactor scale tokamak plasma will exhibit three areas of physics phenomenology not accessible by contemporary experimental facilities. These are: (1) instabilities generated by energetic alpha particles; (2) self-heating phenomena; and (3) reactor scale physics, which includes integration of diverse physics phenomena, each with its own scaling properties. In each area, selected examples are presented that demonstrate the importance and uniqueness of physics results from reactor scale facilities for both inductive and steady state reactor options. It is concluded that the physics learned in such investigations will be original physics not attainable with contemporary facilities. In principle, a reactor scale facility could have a good measure of flexibility to optimize the tokamak approach to magnetic fusion energy.