RF Plasma Heating in Toroidal Fusion Devices

by V.I. Fedorov, V.E. Golant

Overview

Because of recent progress in the development of quasistationary toroidal mag- netic confinement systems, especially tokamaks, these systems are at the center of research on controlled thermonuclear fusion. Tokamaks were proposed and first built at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. In the 1960s the basic features of plasma behavior in toroidal magnetic confinement systems were investigated in ex- periments on the first tokamaks and the possibility of obtaining effective confine- ment in them was demonstrated. The successes of this first stage led to a rapid ex- pansion in tokamak research around the world. The development of a thermonu- clear power reactor based on the tokamak is now actively under way. During the earliest phase of research on tokamaks, it was already clear that the ohmic heating used in them was not sufficient to obtain the temperatures needed for initiation of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction. At the beginning of the 1970s, therefore, a search was begun for methods of heating which could supple- ment ohmic heating. The best of these auxiliary heating techniques are neutral beam injection, various methods based on the collisionless absorption of rf (radio fre- quency) waves, and adiabatic compression of the plasma by a rising magnetic field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468416732
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	03/08/2012
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1989
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1. Plasma Heating in Toroidal Fusion Devices.- 1.1. Conditions for Energy Production in Quasistationary Systems.- 1.2 Basic Concepts of Plasma Confinement in Tokamaks.- 1.3. Experimental Research on Tokamaks.- 1.4. Stellarators.- 1.5. Plasma Heating Efficiency.- 1.6. Specifications for Heating Techniques.- 2. The Interaction of Electromagnetic Waves with Plasmas.- 2.1. Basic Concepts and the Equations of Plasma Electrodynamics.- 2.2. The Dielectric Tensor of Cold Plasmas.- 2.3. Oscillations and Waves in Cold Plasmas.- 2.4. Wave Propagation in Tokamaks in the Approximation of Geometric Optics.- 2.5. Role of the Thermal Motion of Plasma Particles (k— B0).- 2.6. Transverse Spatial Dispersion (k— B0).- 2.7. Effect of Spatial Dispersion on Resonances.- 2.8. Propagation of Waves with— «—?Be?. The Lower Hybrid Resonance.- 2.9. Propagation of Waves with Frequencies———Be and— «—Be.- 2.10. Effect of Real Plasma Inhomogeneities on the Propagation of Waves in Toroidal Systems.- 2.11. Distortion of the Distribution Functions of Charged Particles in the Field of a Monochromatic Wave.- 2.12. Quasilinear Theory of Wave Damping.- 2.13. Shastic Ion Heating in the Lower Hybrid Resonance Frequency Range.- 3. Electron Cyclotron Heating.- 3.1. Basic Heating Schemes and Numerical Simulations.- 3.2. Heating Techniques.- 3.3. Experimental Results.- 3.4. Summary of Research.- 4. Lower Hybrid Heating.- 4.1. Theoretical Model Ill.- 4.2. Heating Techniques.- 4.3. Experimental Studies.- 4.4. Summary of Research.- 5. Ion Cyclotron Heating.- 5.1. The Physics of Wave Propagation for———Be. Principal Heating Schemes.- 5.2. Heating Techniques.- 5.3. Experimental Studies.- 5.4. Summary of Research.- 6. Alfvén Wave Heating.- 6.1. Physics of Alfvén Wave Heating.- 6.2.Experimental Studies.- 6.3. Prospects for Alfvén Wave Heating.- 7. A Comparison of Plasma Heating Techniques.- 7.1. Rf Heating.- 7.2. Neutral Beam Injection.- 7.3. Adiabatic Compression.- References.