SST-1 (tokamak)
Encyclopedia
SST-1 is a plasma
confinement experimental device under construction in the Institute for Plasma Research
(IPR) in India
. It is designed as a medium-sized tokamak
with superconducting magnets.
The SST-1 System is housed in Institute for Plasma Research
, Gandhinagar. The system is expected to be completed by December 2011; 4 months ahead of schedule. The first plasma shots are expected in January 2012. The SST-1 team is headed by Dr. SS Pradhan.
OBJECTIVE: The SST-1 tokamak belongs to a new generation of tokamaks with the major objective being steady state operation of an advanced configuration plasma. Traditionally the tokamaks have operated with a `transformer' action -- with plasma acting as a secondary, thus having the vital `self-generated' magnetic field on top of the `externally-generated' (toroidal and equilibrium) fields. This is a pretty good scheme in which creation, current-drive and heating are neatly integrated and remained a choice of the fusion community for many years until the stage came to heat the plasma to multi-keV temperatures. Heating was then accomplished separately by Radio Frequency (RF) waves and/or energetic Neutral Beam Injection (NBI). Subsequently, excellent control got established on tokamak plasma performance by controlling the plasma-wall interaction processes at the plasma boundary so the plasma duration was limited primarily by the `transformer pulse length'. However, for relevance to future power reactors it is essential to operate these devices in a steady state mode. The very idea of steady state operation presents a series of physics and technology challenges! For example, the excellent plasma performance which was accomplished earlier, was with the surrounding material wall acting as a good `pump' of particles, a fact which may not be true in steady state. So one has to try and accomplish an equally good performance in presence of a possibly `saturated' wall. Secondly, a host of engineering and technical considerations spring up. The magnets must be superconducting type, otherwise the power dissipation in conventional (resistive) types can reach uneconomical levels. They have to be specially designed to remain superconducting in spite of their proximity to the other `warm' objects (like vacuum vessel etc.). The heat and particle exhaust must be handled in steady state with specialized tiles and active cooling. The advanced, so-called double null diverter plasma configuration has to be maintained through efficient feedback control avoiding plasma disruptions over long discharge duration s.
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
confinement experimental device under construction in the Institute for Plasma Research
Institute for Plasma Research
Institute for Plasma Research is an autonomous physics research institute located in India. The institute is involved in research in aspects of plasma science including basic plasma physics, research on magnetically confined hot plasmas and plasma technologies for industrial applications. It is a...
(IPR) in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is designed as a medium-sized tokamak
Tokamak
A tokamak is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus . Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape...
with superconducting magnets.
The SST-1 System is housed in Institute for Plasma Research
Institute for Plasma Research
Institute for Plasma Research is an autonomous physics research institute located in India. The institute is involved in research in aspects of plasma science including basic plasma physics, research on magnetically confined hot plasmas and plasma technologies for industrial applications. It is a...
, Gandhinagar. The system is expected to be completed by December 2011; 4 months ahead of schedule. The first plasma shots are expected in January 2012. The SST-1 team is headed by Dr. SS Pradhan.
OBJECTIVE: The SST-1 tokamak belongs to a new generation of tokamaks with the major objective being steady state operation of an advanced configuration plasma. Traditionally the tokamaks have operated with a `transformer' action -- with plasma acting as a secondary, thus having the vital `self-generated' magnetic field on top of the `externally-generated' (toroidal and equilibrium) fields. This is a pretty good scheme in which creation, current-drive and heating are neatly integrated and remained a choice of the fusion community for many years until the stage came to heat the plasma to multi-keV temperatures. Heating was then accomplished separately by Radio Frequency (RF) waves and/or energetic Neutral Beam Injection (NBI). Subsequently, excellent control got established on tokamak plasma performance by controlling the plasma-wall interaction processes at the plasma boundary so the plasma duration was limited primarily by the `transformer pulse length'. However, for relevance to future power reactors it is essential to operate these devices in a steady state mode. The very idea of steady state operation presents a series of physics and technology challenges! For example, the excellent plasma performance which was accomplished earlier, was with the surrounding material wall acting as a good `pump' of particles, a fact which may not be true in steady state. So one has to try and accomplish an equally good performance in presence of a possibly `saturated' wall. Secondly, a host of engineering and technical considerations spring up. The magnets must be superconducting type, otherwise the power dissipation in conventional (resistive) types can reach uneconomical levels. They have to be specially designed to remain superconducting in spite of their proximity to the other `warm' objects (like vacuum vessel etc.). The heat and particle exhaust must be handled in steady state with specialized tiles and active cooling. The advanced, so-called double null diverter plasma configuration has to be maintained through efficient feedback control avoiding plasma disruptions over long discharge duration s.