Status of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR)

Abstract

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). the key toroidal confinement device of the US fusion energy research program, is directed toward the goal of demonstrating energy break-even under DT conditions by 1988. TFTR now is completing its second year of research operation. In this period it has extended the study of scaling in ohmic heated plasmas and found scaling to vary with the cube of length including observations relative to that of the Princeton Large Torus (PLT) tokamak; it has explored impurity effects and the influence of neutral beam heating on confinement. The ongoing experimental campaign is being conducted with plasma/machine parameters up to B T ~ 40 kG , I p ~ 1.5 MA , P NB ~ 2 MW(H) and τ NB ~ 0.3 s with τ c up to 0.3 s. With completion of this two year start-up phase the TFTR will be operated for a two-year period of machine optimization concluding with Q ~ 1 for DD operation, followed by a two year phase of plasma optimization culminating with DT operation at Q ~ 1 in 1988. A subsequent phase of D-T research is under consideration.