The technology and science of steady-state operation in magnetically confined plasmas

Abstract

The steady-state operation of magnetically confined fusion plasmas is considered as one of the ‘grand challenges’ of future decades, if not the ultimate goal of the research and development activities towards a new source of energy. Reaching such a goal requires the high-level integration of both science and technology aspects of magnetic fusion into self-consistent plasma regimes in fusion-grade devices.On the physics side, the first constraint addresses the magnetic confinement itself which must be made persistent. This means to either rely on intrinsically steady-state configurations, like the stellarator one, or turn the inductively driven tokamak configuration into a fully non-inductive one, through a mix of additional current sources. The low efficiency of the external current drive methods and the necessity to minimize the re-circulating power claim for a current mix strongly weighted by the internal ‘pressure driven’ bootstrap current, itself strongly sensitive to the heat and particle transport properties of the plasma. A virtuous circle may form as the heat and particle transport properties are themselves sensitive to the current profile conditions. Note that several other factors, e.g. plasma rotation profile, magneto-hydro-dynamics activity, also influence the equilibrium state.In the present tokamak devices, several examples of such ‘advanced tokamak’ physics research demonstrate the feasibility of steady-state regimes, though with a number of open questions still under investigation. The modelling activity also progresses quite fast in this domain and supports understanding and extrapolation.This high level of physics sophistication of the plasma scenario however needs to be combined with steady-state technological constraints. The technology constraints for steady-state operation are basically twofold: the specific technologies required to reach the steady-state plasma conditions and the generic technologies linked to the long pulse operation of a fusion device. The first includes specific additional heating and current drive methods (through externally launched radio-frequency waves or energetic atoms), fuelling and pumping methods, dedicated plasma diagnostics as well as software technologies required for mandatory real time control loops, involving such actuators and sensors. The second class of technologies, generic to any magnetic fusion device, includes the superconducting magnet technologies, in order to provide a stationary confinement magnetic field, the actively cooled plasma facing components (PFCs) handling either radiated or convected power fluxes (often in excess of several tens of MW m−2), dedicated diagnostics monitoring the interfaces (e.g. infrared survey of PFCs), etc. The detailed specifications of all elements must comply with a reactor-relevant environment, in terms of operational parameters as well as lifetime.The paper presents a summary of the present status and understanding of the technology and science of steady-state operation in magnetically confined plasmas, as well as the forthcoming work programme dedicated to the vast R&D programme undertaken in this domain, in particular within the European fusion framework.