National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Future Prospects
Suggested Citation:"Past Achievements." National Research Council. 1995. Plasma Science: From Fundamental Research to Technological Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4936.
×
Page 84
Suggested Citation:"Past Achievements." National Research Council. 1995. Plasma Science: From Fundamental Research to Technological Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4936.
×
Page 85

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT FUSION 84 plasma heating, even under reactor-like conditions, electron cyclotron resonance heating may be used either for bulk plasma heating or for special- purpose localized heating (temperature profile control). In principle, localized heating offers the possibility of controlling the pressure profile and thereby improving MHD stability. Lower hybrid waves has been most successful at driving toroidal plasma currents (lower-hybrid current drive, or LHCD). In future experiments, LHCD will be used mainly for driving off-axis plasma currents (current profile control), while the central currents may be driven with neutral beams or with fast magnetosonic waves in the ICRF regime. For purposes of disruption control, highly localized edge current drive with electron cyclotron waves is contemplated. In the future, rf wave theory will concentrate on the nonlinear regime. In many cases this leads to the study of strongly nonlinear regimes in plasmas, including turbulence, chaos, and stochastic particle acceleration. An understanding of these phenomena will have a large impact on our understanding of similar phenomena in astrophysical and space plasmas, including solar physics. Radio-frequency heating is a strong technology driver. Higher-power radio- frequency sources are under development in nearly all frequency regimes. In the ICRF regime, new tetrodes have been developed by industry with cw power levels up to 3 MW; future directions include the possible development of 5-MW tube capability. In the lower-hybrid regimes, cw tubes (klystrons) up to 0.5 MW have been developed at 2.45–3.7 GHz, and for future applications, 1 MW tubes are good prospect for development. Finally, in the electron-cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) regime, ~1-MW pulsed tubes (gyrotrons) have been developed at frequencies in the 100-GHz range, and future development work promises cw tubes at the 1-MW level at frequencies up to 150 GHz. DIAGNOSTIC DEVELOPMENT Introduction and Background The need to measure detailed plasma parameters in fusion-grade plasma environments has led to many creative applications of plasma science. In turn, numerous advances in plasma science have been inspired directly by the need to understand the plasma properties with ever-increasing precision. Important examples from the last decade of research are indicated below. In addition, a summary of future directions is presented. Past Achievements Density and electron temperature profiles are routinely measured by laser Thomson scattering and laser interferometry. Electron temperature profiles in hot plasmas are also measured by electron cyclotron emission (ECE). Ion tem

MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT FUSION 85 peratures are often measured by spectroscopic techniques. Among more novel diagnostics, one of the most important and, therefore, most intensely investigated areas is that of incoherent fluctuations and their relationship to energy and particle transport. The fluctuating quantities of interest include density, temperature, and plasma potential. To relate these to transport, it is necessary to measure frequency and wavenumber spectra, along with relative phase, as functions of spatial location. Many techniques have been developed to attack these problems. Beam emission spectroscopy (BES) allows for the measurement of electron density fluctuations by looking spectroscopically at line radiation that results from plasma excitation of high-energy neutral-beam atoms injected into the plasma. BES has led to the discovery of large-scale structures that are now the subject of intense theoretical investigations. Other techniques that have been invented to measure density fluctuations include reflectometry (backscattering from the critical layer), laser scattering, and phase- contrast imaging. Utilizing heavy-ion beam probes of very high energy (~1 MeV), measurements of both density and potential fluctuations have been carried out. Probes have long been used in low-temperature plasmas to measure both density and potential fluctuations, and these are used routinely in the scrape-off region of tokamak plasmas. For the first time, fast scanning probes have allowed access to hotter regions of plasma, inside the last closed flux surface. The ability to measure density and potential fluctuations simultaneously has allowed the first direct measurements of fluctuation-induced energy and particle cross-field transport. The desire to know the detailed structure of the magnetic field in the hot confinement region of tokamaks has spawned several creative new diagnostic techniques. These include the application of Faraday rotation, Zeeman polarimetry using neutral beams and pellets, and the imaging of the ion clouds that result from pellet ablation. The approach that probably has the most potential for highly precise internal field measurements with good spatial resolution involves an application of the motional Stark effect (MSE), also using an energetic neutral beam. This has led to detailed q profile (safety factor) measurements and new insights into MHD phenomena. The ability to measure detailed profiles of plasma parameters also has matured significantly over the last 10 years. By combining measurements from multiple arrays of soft x-ray sensitive diode detectors with new tomographic inversion algorithms, a wealth of new physics information on the structure and evolutions of fusion plasmas has been gleaned. Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS), whereby excited states of hydrogen-like ions of low-Z impurities, such as carbon and oxygen, are populated by charge transfer from atomic hydrogen beam atoms, has enabled detailed local measurements of ion temperature profiles. This is crucial to our attempts to understand the mechanisms responsible for cross-field energy transport. Perhaps even more important, this approach has allowed for the measurement of plasma rotation and, particularly near the edge of plasma, has provided important clues to the rela

Next: Introduction and Background »
Plasma Science: From Fundamental Research to Technological Applications Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $65.00 Buy Ebook | $54.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Plasma science is the study of ionized states of matter. This book discusses the field's potential contributions to society and recommends actions that would optimize those contributions. It includes an assessment of the field's scientific and technological status as well as a discussion of broad themes such as fundamental plasma experiments, theoretical and computational plasma research, and plasma science education.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!