8-12 August 2016
Novosibirsk
Asia/Novosibirsk timezone

Concept Exploration Helical Mirror Device: Design and Status

9 Aug 2016, 16:30
20m
Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk

Oral Plasma confinement, heating and stability Plasma confinement, heating and stability

Speaker

Dr Anton Sudnikov (Budker INP SB RAS)

Description

Recent results of the Gas-Dynamic Trap show the possibility of the quasistationary confinement of the plasma with high relative pressure ($\beta\approx60$%), mean energy of hot ions of 12 keV and the electron temperature up to 0.9 keV [1]. Highly conservative extrapolation of the Gas-Dynamic Trap physics to the optimized 10-meter-long machine with D–T fuel leads to the concept of the neutron source for material research with fusion gain factor Q = 0.05 [2]. Much higher fusion gain could be achieved by improvement of the longitudinal confinement, i.e. by increasing of the effective mirror ratio. Mirror ratio in the simple open trap is limited by the technically achievable magnetic field and is supposed to be $\sim$15-20 in neutron source concepts. Today multiple-mirror [3] and ambipolar [4] methods of the suppression of the axial heat flux are tested. Implication of the multiple-mirror suppression [5] to the neutron source project leads to the feasible fusion gain appropriate for hybrid systems. Both of the listed above methods of the suppression are passive barriers. Recently, a new idea of active plasma counterflow pumping by the combination of helicoidal magnetic and radial electric fields was proposed [6]. Plasma rotates due to $E\times B$ drift. Periodical variations of helicoidal magnetic field move therefore along the flow in its reference frame, and induce longitudinal force acting on the trapped particles. Theory predicts exponential dependence of the flow suppression on the magnetic structure length, that is more favorable then the power dependence in passive magnetic systems. Concept exploration device for this idea is now being constructed in BINP. In this report key issues of the design of this device are discussed: the magnetic system, the plasma gun, the biasing electrodes for the radial electric field formation, the plasma facing components and the diagnostics. This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation (project 14-50-00080). [1] A. V. Anikeev, et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 68, (No. 1), 1 (2015). [2] A. V. Anikeev, et al., Materials. 8, (No. 12), 8452 (2015), DOI: 10.3390/ma8125471. [3] A. Burdakov, et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 51 (No. 2T), 106 (2007) [4] T. Imai et al, Fusion Sci. Technol. 63 (No. 1T), 8 (2013) [5] A. D. Beklemishev, et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 63 (No. 1T), 46 (2013) [6] A. D. Beklemishev, Fusion Sci. Technol. 63 (No. 1T), 355 (2013)

Primary author

Dr Anton Sudnikov (Budker INP SB RAS)

Co-authors

Prof. Aleksandr Burdakov (Budker INP SB RAS) Mr Aleksandr Makarov (Budker INP SB RAS) Dr Alexei Beklemishev (Budker INP SB RAS) Mr Eugeny Sidorov (Budker INP SB RAS) Dr Ivan Ivanov (Budker INP SB RAS) Mr Konstantin Kuklin (Budker INP SB RAS) Mrs Natalia Vasilyeva (Budker INP SB RAS) Dr Vladimir Postupaev (Budker INP SB RAS)

Presentation Materials

Peer reviewing

Paper