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Experimental Stellarator Research: Recent Results and Near-Term Plans

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Experimental Stellarator Research: Recent Results and Near-Term Plans Experimental stellarator research: Recent results and near-term plans Thomas Sunn Pedersen1,2, for the SIMSOPT Team and the W7-X Team, and Eve Stenson1,3,4, for the APEX collaboration, with contributions from HSX and LHD teams 1Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching and Greifswald, Germany 2University of Greifswald, Germany 3University of California, San Diego, USA 4Technical University of Munich, Germany Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented by Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 2 Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL Be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented By Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 3 Fusion in a nutshell: increase triple product • Magnetic confinement fusion energy: ~T2 • Choose the most reactive process: D+T-> He(3.5 MeV)+n(14.1 MeV) • Heat D-T plasma to 10-30 keV • Use toroidal magnetic confinement: • Parallel transport leads to no heat loss • Perpendicular heat transport across B should be slow • Alpha particle (He) heats plasma • 0-D analysis: A fusion plasma ignites if !" > !$%&& ;<$=&>= 3.5 *+, ×./.0 < 23 > , = 56 ≥ 589:: = ?@ C C k .FGF + .IGI .IGI nB TB > = 2K ?@ ?@ CP RS .IGI?@ ≥ 2K ≈ 4×10 Q K+, T T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 4 A simplified view on how we bring up the triple product +,-,./ ↑ Particle source Heating power (P) Complicated There are limits! Predicting plasma transport is complicated, especially at high T. Pressure (p) limit (beta): Stellarator empirical scaling: ISS04 2.28 0.64 -0.61 0.54 0.84 0.41 p=n(Te+Ti) τ E = 0.134a R P ne B ι ! = #$%& < ! '( * Bigger plasma Bigger B-field B-field better better topology plays a role T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 5 Tokamak and stellarator: Equilibrium and confinement Tokamak (Axisymmetric) Stellarator (3D shaping) High-pressure equilibria require a strong toroidal magnetic field Bt, which can be generated from external coils Confinement requires a substantial Bp, Confinement requires a substantial Bp, which must be generated from a large which is generated from external coils internal toroidal current. that must break the axisymmetry T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 6 Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented by Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 8 The Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX); in operation since 1999 Quasi-helically symmetric: The first hidden-symmetry stellarator in the world B=Bo[1-ehcos(nf-mq)] U|| USym Ud T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 9 Plasma flows along the helical (hidden-symmetry) direction Plasma flow stronger in QHS Flow direction is along the direction of symmetry QHS Mirror Time (msec.) QHS=quasi-helical (hidden) symmetry Mirror= hidden symmetry perturBed T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 10 Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented by Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 11 For fusion, bigger is better: Large Helical Device, Japan (since 1998) B-field strength: 3 T Plasma volume 30 m3 Heating power 30+ MW Plasma Achieved parameters 19 -3 Ion temperature 10 keV (ne = 1´10 m ) Electron 10 keV (1.6´1019m-3) temperature 21 -3 Density 1.2´10 m (Te = 0.25 keV) 2&'( < " > =< > 5.1% (BT = 0.425 T) )* Reminder: “Bigger is better“, „higher B is better“ And don‘t forget: triple product is what matters With permission from T. Morisaki, NIFS T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 12 Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented by Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 13 Wendelstein 7-X optimization The W7-X 3D magnetic field was determined with a comprehensive computational optimization procedure targeting multiple physics goals simultaneously. The primary ones were: #$ & 1. Stable equilibria with good flux surfaces at high plasma pressure: <b> =< % >=5% '( 2. Strongly improved single-particle orbit confinement, in particular at <b>=5% 3. Strongly reduced toroidal current – improving stability and giving a robust exhaust channel (the island divertor) To note, the optimization was performed ~20 years ago and can now be done better: Optimization (reduction) of turbulent transport was not performed. Relaxation of engineering tolerances was not done systematically or comprehensively. T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 14 Optimization of W7-X illustrated Classical stellarator Wendelstein 7-X As shown by A. Bhattacharjee Tokamak: Obvious symmetry T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 15 The optimized stellarator Wendelstein 7-X … … is designed for steady-state operation (30 minutes) at 10 MW of heating power Technical parameters Plasma major radius: 5.5 m Plasma minor radius: 0.5 m Plasma volume: 30 m3 70 superconducting coils Magnetic field (on axis): 2.5 T T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 16 The optimized stellarator Wendelstein 7-X … … is designed for steady-state operation (30 minutes) at 10 MW of heating power Technical parameters Plasma major radius: 5.5 m Plasma minor radius: 0.5 m Plasma volume: 30 m3 70 superconducting coils Magnetic Field (on axis): 2.5 T T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 17 Staged approach to steady-state operation OP 2: 2021 … Limiter Steady-state operation Limiter Actively cooled divertor configuration P ~ 20 MW OP 1.2: 2017 / 2018 Technical limit 30 minutes @ 10 MW Uncooled divertor configuration PECRH < 8 MW tpulse <100 s OP 1.1: 2015 / 2016 Limiter configuration Divertor PECRH < 5 MW tpulse ~ 1 s T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 18 Record triple product achieved with 5MW ECRH and pellets 20171207.006 Density increase by frozen hydrogen pellets 12.5 Te 20 -3 10.0 Ti - ne ≤ 1×10 m 7.5 - Ti = Te ≤ 3.8 keV [keV] i T 5.0 , e - t t T Energy confinement time E ≤ 220 ms (1.4× ISS04) 2.5 0.0 Record triple product for stellarators (transiently) 0 1 2 3 4 5 19 -3 time [s] n Ti tE ~ 6.8×10 keV m s Turbulence Pellets Suppression T. Sunn Pedersen Uni Rostock January 2019 19 Steady-state ”detached” half-minute discharge T=20 sec T=1 sec T=10 sec T=30 sec Detached Attached Detached Detached 21 10.06.19 W7-X in general has very good confinement: 28-second detached discharge had H/L mode confinement • ISS04 (slide 6) works for tokamaks also (grey) • Fits H-mode (high-confinement mode): • Self-generated state characterized by reduced turbulence and, as a consequence, better confinement • L-mode (light grey) has relatively high level of turbulence • The best W7-X discharges lie within the same range that regular tokamak H-mode discharges do. • The 28 sec discharge labeled “detached” has confinement between H- and L-mode • The triPle Product record shot (labeled “transient” here) lies above the H-mode scaling, and, as shown, had reduced turbulent fluctuations 10.06.19 Uni Rostock January 2019 22 On the way to high-performance steady-state operation W7-X OP2 OP1.2 OP1.1 OP1.2 W7-X Courtesy of M. Kikuchi T. Sunn Pedersen et al, Phys. Plasmas 24 (2017) 055503 T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 23 Triple product is not all: Ti is important on ist own • Triple product is actually too simplified to be used on its own • Ion temperature on its own is also key • High ion temperature and long confinement only possible for optimized stellarators • W7-X first results are respectable! • See Per Helander’s talk for more information about the “trophy shot” 10.06.19 Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 24 Contents • Magnetic confinement and fusion: • Triple product: A relevant figure of merit – and how we increase it • Stellarators: What are they, and how do they differ from tokamaks • Achievements from world stellarators (acronyms WILL be explained) • HSX, Madison, WI, USA • LHD, Toki, Japan • W7-X, Greifswald, Germany • Outlook: What is on the near-term horizon • EPOS (presented by Eve Stenson) T. Sunn Pedersen Simons Meeting, New York, March 2019 25 Now is the time – a stellar(ator) comeback is in the making! • There are a number of recent „external“ developments aid fusion – in particular stellarators: • 3-D design and manufacturing is becoming commonplace and hence manageable and cost- effective • Impending/ongoing revolution in superconductor technology (see Eve Stenson’s talk): 3 • Triple product scales appr.
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