Current generation with low-frequency waves

Abstract

Various types of traveling waves may be injected into a tokamak to continuously sustain the toroidal current. Interest in this problem arises from the possibility of operating tokamak reactors in the steady state. The low-frequency waves most suitable for this task are identified in terms of the power cost for deployment in a reactor. Means of exciting these waves and tradeoffs with design criteria are discussed. A comparison is made with the alternative attractive regime of high-frequency waves. Conclusions are based, in part, on the numerical solution of the two-dimensional Fokker–Planck equation with an added quasi-linear term due to the waves.