Taming Plasma Bursts to Ensure Fusion Chamber Survival
Creating a fusion 'sun' on earth, in plasma fusion machines such as tokamaks, will provide a critically needed, environmentally acceptable long-term source of energy. However, the task is complicated by the bursts from the 100-million-degree plasma that reach and threaten the life of the chamber surrounding the manmade sun. International teams of scientists at the PPPL National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) and the GA DIII-D National Fusion Facility carried out a series of investigations of these bursts, their varieties, and their dependence on the plasma conditions. A new type of bursts is identified to be particularly interesting, with much higher frequency and lower energy, and therefore delivers much weaker punches than the more studied varieties. Multiple ultra-fast high-resolution cameras (up to one million frames per second), infrared cameras, spectrometers, edge probes, fast gas puffs, and modern computing and modeling codes were trained to reveal the detailed nature and conditions of these bursts. An advanced diagnostic using atomic lithium beams has been developed to provide information on our understanding of when these bursts arise. Maintaining the proper fusion plasma conditions now holds the potential of taming these 'astrophysical' bursts to ensure the fusion c
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Contact: James Riordon
riordon@aps.org
301-209-3238
American Physical Society
3-Nov-2004