Abstract
A tokamak is a device to create and confine a high temperature hydrogen isotope plasma, with the ultimate objective to produce thermonuclear fusion energy (see ref. 1 for a comprehensive review). It consists of a toroidal current in an externally applied toroidal magnetic field, and some provision for preventing the current loop from expanding in major radius. Since the plasma current both heats the plasma and produces a magnetic field, and since the local plasma conductivity (and hence current density and power input distribution, and the magnetic field topology) depends on the local electron temperature, the plasma dynamics in tokamaks are extraordinarily complicated, and only vaguely understood in many important respects. In particular, the mechanism of particle transport across the magnetic field has been a mystery of long standing. The principal difficulty in solution of the problem is the scarcity of reliable measurements of local particle transport rates, and other local plasma parameters of interest, in the hot interior of the plasma. It is in such local diagnostics where spectroscopy of highly ionized atoms of e.g. Fe, Ni, Ti, Kr and others offer many interesting possibilities.
Published Version
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