On the fusion triple product and fusion power gain of tokamak pilot plants and reactors

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: On the fusion triple product and fusion power gain of tokamak pilot plants and reactors
المؤلفون: A.E. Costley
المصدر: Nuclear Fusion. 56:066003
بيانات النشر: IOP Publishing, 2016.
سنة النشر: 2016
مصطلحات موضوعية: Physics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Fusion, Tokamak, Fusion energy gain factor, Nuclear engineering, Nanotechnology, Plasma, Fusion power, Condensed Matter Physics, 01 natural sciences, 010305 fluids & plasmas, Power (physics), law.invention, Triple product, law, Beta (plasma physics), 0103 physical sciences, 010306 general physics
الوصف: The energy confinement time of tokamak plasmas scales positively with plasma size and so it is generally expected that the fusion triple product, nTτ E, will also increase with size, and this has been part of the motivation for building devices of increasing size including ITER. Here n, T, and τ E are the ion density, ion temperature and energy confinement time respectively. However, tokamak plasmas are subject to operational limits and two important limits are a density limit and a beta limit. We show that when these limits are taken into account, nTτ E becomes almost independent of size; rather it depends mainly on the fusion power, P fus. In consequence, the fusion power gain, Q fus, a parameter closely linked to nTτ E is also independent of size. Hence, P fus and Q fus, two parameters of critical importance in reactor design, are actually tightly coupled. Further, we find that nTτ E is inversely dependent on the normalised beta, β N; an unexpected result that tends to favour lower power reactors. Our findings imply that the minimum power to achieve fusion reactor conditions is driven mainly by physics considerations, especially energy confinement, while the minimum device size is driven by technology and engineering considerations. Through dedicated R&D and parallel developments in other fields, the technology and engineering aspects are evolving in a direction to make smaller devices feasible.
تدمد: 1741-4326
0029-5515
URL الوصول: https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::cd78d0b7b760b3f751c8651b24671ca0
https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/56/6/066003
حقوق: OPEN
رقم الأكسشن: edsair.doi...........cd78d0b7b760b3f751c8651b24671ca0
قاعدة البيانات: OpenAIRE