Science Made Simple: What Is a Tokamak?

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ITER Fusion Reactor

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ITER blend reactor tokamak. Credit: ITER

A tokamak is a device that boundaries a plasma utilizing electromagnetic fields in a donut shape that researchers call a torus. Fusion energy researchers think that tokamaks are the leading plasma confinement principle for future blend power plants.

In a tokamak, electromagnetic field coils restrict plasma particles to enable the plasma to accomplish the conditions required for blend. One set of magnetic coils creates an extreme “toroidal” field, directed the long method around the torus. A main solenoid (a magnet that brings electrical present) develops a 2nd electromagnetic field directed along the “poloidal” instructions, the brief method around the torus.

The 2 field parts lead to a twisted electromagnetic field that boundaries the particles in the plasma. A 3rd set of field coils creates an external poloidal field that forms and places the plasma.

The very first tokamak, T-1, started operation in Russia in 1958. Subsequent advances resulted in the building and construction of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Joint European Torus in England, both of which accomplished record blend power in the 1990s. These successes encouraged 35 countries to work together on the superconducting ITER tokamak, which intends to check out the physics of burning plasmas.

Quick Tokamak Facts

DOE Office of Science: Tokamak Contributions

The DOE Office of Science mainly supports research study and advancement on tokamaks through its Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program and FES collaborations with its Advanced Scientific Computer Research (ASCR) program. The FES program concentrates on tokamaks due to the fact that of the principle’s exceptional capability to restrict plasma, a function required to sustain blend responses and understand blend energy production. The Office of Science preserves world-leading research study programs at tokamak user centers such as the DIII-D National Fusion Facility and the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U). FES supports a number of global partnerships, too. These consist of jobs in Asia in addition to ITER in France. The FES function in ITER, which is handled by the United States ITER Project Office, consists of fabrication of the main solenoid.