The physics of magnetic fusion reactors

Abstract

During the past two decades there have been substantial advances in magnetic fusion research. On the experimental front, progress has been led by the mainline tokamaks, which have achieved reactor-level values of temperature and plasma pressure. Comparable progress, when allowance is made for their smaller programs, has been made in complementary configurations such as the stellarator, reversed-field pinch and field-reversed configuration. In this paper, the status of understanding of the physics of toroidal plasmas is reviewed. It is shown how the physics performance, constrained by technological and economic realities, determines the form of reference toroidal reactors. A comparative study of example reactors is not made, because the level of confidence in projections of their performance varies widely, reflecting the vastly different levels of support which each has received. Success with the tokamak has led to the initiation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project. It is designed to produce 1500 MW of fusion power from a deuterium-tritium plasma for pulses of 1000 s or longer and to demonstrate the integration of the plasma and nuclear technologies needed for a demonstration reactor.