Assignment # 1

Histroy and Tokamek

Sajid Rehman
Rida Ahmed
Hina Hafeez

2244
2210
2218

B.S 8th semester (Morning)

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Abdur Rasheed

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
GC University Faisalabad

History
A major problem in attempting to confine plasmas to produce effective
nuclear fusion results or even temperatures high enough to approach those
required for fusion to occur, was how unstable and difficult to contain the
plasmas were.
This is a necessary requirement both to hold the superhot plasmas which
would vaporize any known material physically attempting to contain it and to
reach temperatures with related high ion movement which could produce fusion.
At a further international conference held in the USSR at Novosibirsk in
1968 the Soviets presented their high temperature results for their magnetic
confinement design - the tokamak. Their more effective temperature
measurements utilizing lasers were checked by scientists from other countries.
So compelling were results from this that most countries around the world
embraced the tokamak as the magnetic confinement fusion design of choice for
ongoing research. Even today this is the configuration for the majority of such
confinement experiments

Introduction
A tokamak is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the
shape of a torus. Achieving stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field
lines that move around the torus in a helical shape. Such a helical field can be
generated by adding a toroid field (traveling around the torus in circles) and a
poloidal field (traveling in circles orthogonal to the toroidal field). In a tokamak,
the toroidal field is produced by electromagnets that surround the torus, and the
poloidal field is the result of a toroidal electric current that flows inside the
plasma. This current is induced inside the plasma with a second set of
electromagnets.
The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices.
Magnetic fields are used for confinement since no solid material could withstand
the extremely high temperature of the plasma. An alternative to the tokamak is
the stellarator.
Tokamak were invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists Igor Tamm
a0020nd Andrei Sakharov, inspired by an original idea of Oleg Lavrentiev.

Principle

In fusion power research, the Z-pinch, also known as zeta pinch, is a type
of plasma confinement system that uses an electrical current in the plasma to
generate a magnetic field that compresses it. The Z-pinch is an application of the
Lorentz force, in which a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field
experiences a force. One example of the Lorentz force is that, if two parallel wires
are carrying current in the same direction, the wires will be pulled toward each
other. In a Z-pinch machine the wires are replaced by a plasma, which can be

thought of as many current-carrying wires. When a current is run through the

plasma, the particles in plasma are pulled toward each other by the Lorentz
force, thus the plasma contracts. The contraction is counteracted by the
increasing gas pressure of the plasma.
As the plasma is electrically conductive, a magnetic field nearby will
induce a current in it. This provides a way to run a current into the plasma
without physical contact, which is important as a plasma can rapidly erode
mechanical electrode. In practical devices this was normally arranged by placing
the plasma vessel inside the core of a transformer, arranged so the plasma itself
would be the secondary. When current was sent into the primary side of the
transformer, the magnetic field induced a current into the plasma. As induction
requires a changing magnetic field, and the induced current is supposed to run in
a single direction in most reactor designs, the current in the transformer has to
be increased over time to produce the varying magnetic field. This places a limit
on the product of confinement time and magnetic field, for any given source of
power.
In Z-pinch machines the current is generally provided from a large bank of
capacitors and triggered by a spark gap, known as a Marx Bank or Marx
generator. As the conductivity of plasma is fairly good, about that of copper, the
energy stored in the power source is quickly depleted by running through the
plasma. Z-pinch devices are inherently pulsed in nature.
Although it remained relatively unknown for years, the Soviets used the
pinch concept to develop the tokamak device. Unlike the stabilized pinch devices
in the US and UK, the tokamak used considerably more energy in the stabilizing
magnets, and much less in the plasma current. This reduced the instabilities due
to the large currents in the plasma, and led to great improvements in stability.
The results of their experiments were so good that other researchers were
skeptical of them when they were first announced in full force in 1968. Members
of the still-operational ZETA team were called in to verify the results. The
tokamak has since gone on to become the most studied approach to controlled
fusion.

Criteria for fusion

Critical Ignition Temperature for Fusion
The presumed height of the coulomb barrier is based upon the distance at which the
nuclear strong force could overcome the coulomb repulsion. The required temperature may
be overestimated if the classical radii of the nuclei are used for this distance, since the range
of the strong interaction is significantly greater than a classical proton radius. With all these
considerations, the critical temperatures for the two most important cases are about:

Deuterium-deuterium fusion : 40
Deuterium-tritium fusion: 4.5

x 107 K

x 107 K

Confinement Time for Fusion

Confinement time in nuclear fusion devices is defined as the time the plasma is maintained
at a temperature above the critical ignition temperature. To yield more energy from the fusion than
has been invested to heat the plasma, the plasma must be held up to this temperature for some
minimum length of time.

Critical density
Even given a high enough temperature to overcome the coulomb barrier to nuclear fusion, a
critical density of ions must be maintained to make the probability of collison high enough to
achieve a net yield of energy from the reaction.

Lawsons criteria
Once a critical ignition temperature for nuclear fusion has been achieved, it must be
maintained at that temperature for a long enough confinement time at a high enough ion density to
obtain a net yield of energy. In 1957, J. D. Lawson showed that the product of ion density and
confinement time determined the minimum conditions for productive fusion, and that product is
commonly called Lawson's criterion. Commonly quoted figures for this criterion are
For D-T

nT>=10^14 s/cm3

For D-D

nT>=10^16 s/cm3

There are two ways to achieve the temperatures and pressures necessary for hydrogen
fusion to take place:

Magnetic confinement uses magnetic and electric fields to heat and squeeze the
hydrogen plasma. The ITER project in France is using this method.
Inertial confinement uses laser beams or ion beams to squeeze and heat the
hydrogen plasma. Scientists are studying this experimental approach at the National
Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the United States.
The development of nuclear fusion reactors presently focuses on either magnetic
confinement reactors or inertial confinement processes.

Microwaves, electricity and neutral particle beams from accelerators heat a stream of
hydrogen gas. This heating turns the gas into plasma. This plasma gets squeezed by superconducting magnets, thereby allowing fusion to occur. The most efficient shape for the
magnetically confined plasma is a donut shape (toroid). A reactor of this shape is called a
tokamak

Toroidal design
Positively and negatively charged ions and negatively charged electrons in
fusion plasma are at very high temperatures, and have correspondingly large
velocities. In order to maintain the fusion process, particles from the hot plasma
must be confined in the central region, or the plasma will rapidly cool. Magnetic
confinement fusion devices exploit the fact that charged particles in a magnetic
field experience a Lorentz force and follow helical paths along the field lines.
Early fusion research devices were variants on the Z-pinch and used
electrical current to generate a poloidal magnetic field to contain the plasma
along a linear axis between two points. Researchers discovered that a simple
toroidal field, in which the magnetic field lines run in circles around an axis of
symmetry,
confines
plasma
better
than
no
field
at
all.

This can be understood by looking at the orbits of individual particles. The

particles not only spiral around the field lines, they also drift across the field.

Since a toroidal field is curved and decreases in strength moving away from the
axis of rotation, the ions and the electrons move parallel to the axis, but in
opposite directions. The charge separation leads to an electric field and an
additional drift, in this case outward (away from the axis of rotation) for both
ions and electrons. Alternatively, the plasma can be viewed as a torus of fluid
with a magnetic field frozen in. The plasma pressure results in a force that tends
to expand the torus. The magnetic field outside the plasma cannot prevent this
expansion. The plasma simply slips between the field lines.
For toroidal plasma to be effectively confined by a magnetic field there
must be a twist to the field lines. There are then no longer flux tubes that simply
encircle the axis, but, if there is sufficient symmetry in the twist, flux surfaces.
Some of the plasma in a flux surface will be on the outside (larger major radius,
or "low-field side") of the torus and will drift to other flux surfaces farther from
the circular axis of the torus. Other portions of the plasma in the flux surface will
be on the inside (smaller major radius, or "high-field side"). Since some of the
outward drift is compensated by an inward drift on the same flux surface, there is
a macroscopic equilibrium with much improved confinement. Another way to
look at the effect of twisting the field lines is that the electric field between the
top and the bottom of the torus, which tends to cause the outward drift, is
shorted out because there are now field lines connecting the top to the bottom.
When the problem is considered even more closely, the need for a vertical
(parallel to the axis of rotation) component of the magnetic field arises. The
Lorentz force of the toroidal plasma current in the vertical field provides the
inward force that holds the plasma torus in equilibrium.
This device where a large toroidal current is established (15 Mega-amps in
ITER) suffers from a fundamental problem of stability. The nonlinear evolution of
magneto hydro dynamical instabilities leads to a dramatic quench of the plasma
current on a very short time scale, of the order of the millisecond. Very energetic
electrons are created (runaway electrons) and a global loss of confinement is
finally obtained. A very high energy is deposited on small areas. This
phenomenon is called a major disruption. The occurrence of major disruptions
in running tokamaks has always been rather high, of the order of a few percent of
the total numbers of the shots. In currently operated tokamaks, the damage is
often large but rarely dramatic. In the ITER tokamak, it is expected that the
occurrence of a limited number of major disruptions will definitively damage the
chamber with no possibility to restore the device.

Plasma heating
In an operating fusion reactor, part of the energy generated will serve to
maintain the plasma temperature as fresh deuterium and tritium are introduced.
However, in the start-up of a reactor, either initially or after a temporary
shutdown, the plasma will have to be heated to its operating temperature of
greater than 10 keV (over 100 million degrees Celsius). In current tokamak (and

other) magnetic fusion experiments, insufficient fusion energy is produced to

maintain the plasma temperature.

Ohmic heating
Since the plasma is an electrical conductor, it is possible to heat the plasma
by inducing a current through it; in fact, the induced current that heats the
plasma usually provides most of the poloidal field. The current is induced by
slowly increasing the current through an electromagnetic winding linked with
the plasma torus: the plasma can be viewed as the secondary winding of a
transformer. This is inherently a pulsed process because there is a limit to the
current through the primary (there are also other limitations on long pulses).
Tokamaks must therefore either operate for short periods or rely on other means
of heating and current drive. The heating caused by the induced current is called
ohmic (or resistive) heating; it is the same kind of heating that occurs in an
electric light bulb or in an electric heater. The heat generated depends on the
resistance of the plasma and the amount of electric current running through it.
But as the temperature of heated plasma rises, the resistance decreases and
ohmic heating becomes less effective. It appears that the maximum plasma
temperature attainable by ohmic heating in a tokamak is 20-30 million degrees
Celsius. To obtain still higher temperatures, additional heating methods must be
used.

Radio-frequency heating
High-frequency electromagnetic waves are generated by oscillators (often
by gyrotrons or klystrons) outside the torus. If the waves have the correct
frequency (or wavelength) and polarization, their energy can be transferred to
the charged particles in the plasma, which in turn collide with other plasma
particles, thus increasing the temperature of the bulk plasma. Various techniques
exist including electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and ion cyclotron
resonance heating. This energy is usually transferred by microwaves.

Tokamak cooling
The fusion reactions in the plasma spiraling around a tokamak reactor
produce large amounts of high energy neutrons. These neutrons, being
electrically neutral, are no longer held in the stream of plasma by the toroidal
magnets and continue until stopped by the inside wall of the tokamak. This is a
large advantage of tokamak reactors since these freed neutrons provide a simple
way to extract heat from the plasma stream; this is how the fusion reactor
generates usable energy. The inside wall of the tokamak must be cooled because
these neutrons yield enough energy to melt the walls of the reactor. A cryogenic
system is used to prevent heat loss from the superconducting magnets. Mostly
liquid helium and liquid nitrogen are used as refrigerants. Ceramic plates

specifically designed to withstand high temperatures are also placed on the

inside reactor wall to protect the magnets and reactor.

Some tokamaks
TFTR (Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor)
The most well-known of the nuclear fusion test reactors is the TFTR at
Princeton. It is a magnetic confinement reactor using the toroidal geometry of the
tokamak, a device first developed in the USSR. It operated at Princeton from
1982 to 1997 and made many contributions to the study of nuclear fusion. n
December of 1993 the TFTR produced an output power level of 5.6 million watts
in a controlled fusion reaction. While more power than this was required as input
to the device, it represents significant progress toward "breakeven", the point at
which the output power equals the input power.
The TFTR reached a temperature of 5.1 x 108 K, above the critical ignition
temperature for D-T fusion, and has approached very close to the Lawson
criterion, although not at the same time. The temperature reached by the TFTR
was the record for highest temperature achieved. It is more than 30 times the
core temperature of the Sun, which is about 1.5 x 107 K.

ITER
It will begin operation in 2020 with full fusion power tests in 2028.
However, thanks largely to budgetary cuts across science, the United States' longterm financial contribution to ITER is in question, which could delay the start
further
The ITER tokamak will be a self-contained reactor whose parts are in
various cassettes. These cassettes can be easily inserted and removed without
having to tear down the entire reactor for maintenance. The tokamak will have a
plasma toroid with a 2-meter inner radius and a 6.2-meter outer radius.

The ITER magnet system comprises 18 superconducting toroidal field

and 6 poloidal field coils, a central solenoid, and a set of correction coils that
magnetically confine, shape and control the plasma inside the vacuum vessel.
Additional coils will be implemented to mitigate Edge Localized Modes (ELMs),
which are highly energetic outbursts near the plasma edge that, if left
uncontrolled, cause the plasma to lose part
of its energy.
The power of the magnetic fields
required to confine the plasma in the ITER
vacuum vessel is extreme. For maximum
efficiency and to limit energy consumption,
ITER uses superconducting magnets that
lose their resistance when cooled down to
very low temperatures. The toroidal and
poloidal field coils lie between the vacuum
vessel and the cryostat, where they are
cooled and shielded from the heat
generating neutrons of the fusion reaction.
The superconducting material for both the
central solenoid and the toroidal field coils is
designed to achieve operation at high
magnetic field (13 Tesla)

The Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

The Alcator C-Mod tokamak, located at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion
Center in Cambridge, MA, has the highest magnetic field strength of any fusion
device in the world: reaching fields of approximately 100,000 times the Earths
magnetic field. This allows it contain the densest plasma at the highest pressures
anywhere in the world. On a daily basis the Alcator C-Mod tokamak confines
plasmas up to 90,000,000 degrees Celsius and creates up to 100 trillion fusion
reactions per second.

Tokamaks around the world

There are currently over a dozen major tokamaks in labs around the world
and many smaller ones in universities. Each tokamak is different in order to

study different parts of plasma physics and fusion energy. In addition to Alcator
C-Mod, the US currently operates two other major tokamaks: DIII-D (pronounced
Dee 3 Dee) in San Diego and NSTX at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Each of these tokamaks is descended from a long line of US tokamaks, with
higher performance from each generation. Together these three tokamaks
represent a substantial investment by the US in the future of fusion energy.

Experimental tokamaks
Currently in operation
(in chronological order of start of operations)

Alcator C-Mod

1960s: TM1-MH (since 1977 Castor, since 2007 Golem[9]) in Prague, Czech Republic; in
operation in Kurchatov Institute since early 1960s; renamed to Castor in 1977 and moved to
IPP CAS,[10] Prague; 2007 moved to FNSPE, Czech Technical University in Prague, and
renamed to Golem[11]
1975: T-10, in Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia (formerly Soviet Union); 2 MW
1978: TEXTOR, in Jlich, Germany
1983: Joint European Torus (JET), in Culham, United Kingdom
1983: Novillo Tokamak,[12] at the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares,in Mexico
City, Mexico
1985: JT-60, in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan; (Currently undergoing upgrade to Super,
Advanced model)
1987: STOR-M, University of Saskatchewan; Canada; first demonstration of alternating
current in a tokamak.
1988: Tore Supra,[13] at the CEA, Cadarache, France
1989: Aditya, at Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gujarat, India
1980s: DIII-D,[14] in San Diego, USA; operated by General Atomics since the late 1980s
1989: COMPASS,[10] in Prague, Czech Republic; in operation since 2008, previously operated
from 1989 to 1999 in Culham, United Kingdom
1990: FTU, in Frascati, Italy
1991: Tokamak ISTTOK,[15] at the Instituto de Plasmas e Fuso Nuclear, Lisbon, Portugal;

Outside view of the NSTX reactor

1991: ASDEX Upgrade, in Garching, Germany

1992: H-1NF (H-1 National Plasma Fusion Research Facility)[16] based on the H-1 Heliac
device built by Australia National University's plasma physics group and in operation since
1992
1992: Alcator C-Mod,[17] MIT, Cambridge, USA
1992: Tokamak configuration variable (TCV), at the EPFL, Switzerland

1994: TCABR, at the University of So Paulo, So Paulo, Brazil; this tokamak was transferred
from Centre des Recherches en Physique des Plasmas in Switzerland
1995: HT-7, in Hefei, China
1999: MAST, in Culham, United Kingdom
1999: NSTX in Princeton, New Jersey
1990s: Pegasus Toroidal Experiment[18] at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; in operation
since the late 1990s
2002: HL-2A, in Chengdu, China
2006: EAST (HT-7U), in Hefei, China (ITER member)
2008: KSTAR, in Daejon, South Korea (ITER member)
2010: JT-60SA, in Naka, Japan (ITER member); upgraded from the JT-60.
2012: SST-1, in Gandhinagar, India (ITER member); the Institute for Plasma Research reports
1000 seconds operation.[19]
2012: IR-T1, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran[20]

Previously operated

The control room of the Alcator C tokamak at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, in about
19821983.

1960s: T-3 and T-4, in Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia (formerly Soviet Union); T-4 in
operation in 1968.
1963: LT-1, Australia National University's plasma physics group built the first tokamak
outside of Soviet Union c. 1963
1971-1980: Texas Turbulent Tokamak, University of Texas at Austin, USA
1973-1976: Tokamak de Fontenay aux Roses (TFR), near Paris, France
1973-1979: Alcator A, MIT, USA
1978-1987: Alcator C, MIT, USA
1979-1998: MT-1 Tokamak, Budapest, Hungary (Built at the Kurchatov Institute, Russia,
transported to Hungary in 1979, rebuilt as MT-1M in 1991)
1982-1997: TFTR, Princeton University, USA
1987-1999: Tokamak de Varennes; Varennes, Canada; operated by Hydro-Qubec and used
by researchers from Institut de recherche en lectricit du Qubec (IREQ) and the Institut
national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
1988-2005: T-15, in Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia (formerly Soviet Union); 10 MW
1991-1998: START in Culham, United Kingdom
1990s-2001: COMPASS, in Culham, United Kingdom
1994-2001: HL-1M Tokamak, in Chengdu, China
1999-2005: UCLA Electric Tokamak, in Los Angeles, USA

Planned

ITER, international project in Cadarache, France; 500 MW; construction began in 2010, first
plasma expected in 2020.[21]
DEMO; 2000 MW, continuous operation, connected to power grid. Planned successor to
ITER; construction to begin in 2024 according to preliminary timetable.