Low recycling and high power density handling physics in the Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade with lithium plasma-facing components
- 30 April 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Physics of Plasmas
- Vol. 14 (5), 056111
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2718509
Abstract
The Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade [T. Munsat, P. C. Efthimion, B. Jones, R. Kaita, R. Majeski, D. Stutman, and G. Taylor, Phys. Plasmas 9, 480 (2002)] spherical tokamak research program has focused on lithium as a large area plasma-facing component (PFC). The energy confinement times showed a sixfold or more improvement over discharges without lithium PFCs. This was an increase of up to a factor of 3 over ITER98P(y,1) scaling [ITER Physics Basis Editors, Nucl. Fusion 39, 2137 (1999)], and reflects the largest enhancement in confinement ever seen in Ohmic plasmas. Recycling coefficients of 0.3 or below were achieved, and they are the lowest to date in magnetically confined plasmas. The effectiveness of liquid lithium in redistributing heat loads at extremely high power densities was demonstrated with an electron beam, which was used to generate lithium coatings. When directed to a lithium reservoir, evaporation occurred only after the entire volume of lithium was raised to the evaporation temperature. The ability to dissipate a beam power density of about could have significant consequences for PFCs in burning plasma devices.
Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Fast gas injection as a diagnostic technique for particle confinement time measurementsReview of Scientific Instruments, 2006
- Enhanced Energy Confinement and Performance in a Low-Recycling TokamakPhysical Review Letters, 2006
- Fundamentals of Multiphase FlowPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,2005
- Supersonic gas injector for fueling and diagnostic applications on the National Spherical Torus ExperimentReview of Scientific Instruments, 2004
- Testing of liquid lithium limiters in CDX-UFusion Engineering and Design, 2004
- On lithium walls and the performance of magnetic fusion devicesPhysics of Plasmas, 2003
- Deuterium retention in liquid lithiumNuclear Fusion, 2002
- Observations concerning the injection of a lithium aerosol into the edge of TFTR dischargesNuclear Fusion, 2001
- On the exploration of innovative concepts for fusion chamber technologyFusion Engineering and Design, 2001
- The French Liquid-Metal Fast Breeder Reactor ProgramAnnual Review of Energy, 1984