Stellarators confine hot plasma in a circular, three-dimensional magnetic field, or torus, inside a fusion reactor. Fusion energy researchers have long sought the best shape for that field to optimize reactor performance. A team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Fusion Energy Division has designed the magnetic field coil system to shape the plasma and the vacuum vessel to contain it for the National Compact Stellarator Experiment at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Using complex computer programs and mathematical models, ORNL team members Mike Cole, Paul Fogarty, Paul Goranson, Jim Lyon, Brad Nelson and David Williamson evaluated many different concepts. The final design -- shaped like a giant, twisted doughnut -- will help prevent plasma disruption, sustain longer fusion reactions and confine the plasma more securely so that it does not lose particles and energy. NCSX is a PPPL-ORNL partnership. Construction for the experimental facility is scheduled to begin in October. First plasma is scheduled for 2008. [Contact: Mike Bradley, 865-576-9553; bradleymk@ornl.gov].

GEOGRAPHY -- A vision for security . . .

National security could be enhanced with a system that quickly sorts and evaluates spatial and geographic information captured in enormous volumes of images. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed system combines the lab's expertise in a number of areas and addresses the problem of having too much information for trained personnel to analyze. Consequently, much of the staggering collection of data is not effectively utilized, said ORNL's Budhu Bhaduri, co-principal investigator for the project. With the ORNL system, security experts would have access to a dynamic data archive plus methods to quickly analyze the information using a variety of tools, including intelligent software agents, geospatial modeling, feature extraction and image a
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Contact: Mike Bradley
bradleymk@ornl.gov
865-576-9553
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
8-Oct-2004