SST-1 (tokamak)
Steady State Superconducting Tokamak | |
---|---|
Device type | Tokamak |
Location | Gandhinagar, India |
Affiliation | Department of Atomic Energy |
Technical specifications | |
Major radius | 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) |
Minor radius | 0.2 m (7.9 in) |
Magnetic field | 3 T (30,000 G) |
History | |
Year(s) of operation | 2005–present |
Links | |
Website | www |
SST-1 (or Steady State Superconducting Tokamak) is a plasma confinement experimental device in the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an autonomous research institute under Department of Atomic Energy, India. It belongs to a new generation of tokamaks with the major objective being steady state operation of an advanced configuration ('D' Shaped) plasma. It has been designed as a medium-sized tokamak with superconducting magnets.
The SST-1 project helped India become capable of conceptualizing and making a fully functional
Next stage of the SST-1 mission, the SST-2, dubbed as 'DEMO', has already been initiated.[1]
History
The first talks about SST Mission started in 1994. The technical details and mechanical drawings of the system were finalized in 2001. The machine was fabricated by 2005.
It was fully commissioned in 2013. And by 2015, produces repeatable plasma discharges up to ~ 500 ms with plasma currents in excess of 75000 A at a central field of 1.5 T.[4] "SST-1 is also the only tokamak in the world with superconducting toroidal field magnets operating in two-phase helium instead of supercritical helium in a cryo-stable manner, thereby demonstrating reduced cold helium consumption. "[4][5]
As of Dec 2015 it is having upgrades including to the plasma facing components to allow longer pulses.[5] [needs update]
Objectives
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
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
Tokamak parameters
Toroidal field, Bθ | 3 T |
Plasma current, IP | 0.22 MA |
Major radius, R0 | 1.1 m |
Minor radius, a | 0.2 m |
Aspect ratio, R/a | 5.5 |
Elongation, κ | <=1.9 |
Triangularity, δ | <=0.8 |
Ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) | 1 MW |
Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) | 1 MW |
Neutral beam injection (NBI) | 1 MW |
Discharge Duration | 1000 s |
Configuration | Double-null divertor |
Plasma diagnostics on SST-1
SST-1 will feature many new plasma diagnostic devices, many of which are being used for the first time in fusion research in India. Some of the novel plasma diagnostics devices incorporated in SST-1 are:
- Fast Scanning Langmuir probe system
- Gas Puff Imaging Diagnostics
- Bolometer for imaging Divertor radiations
Almost all of the diagnostic devices installed on SST-1 are indigenous and are designed and developed by Diagnostics Group of Institute for Plasma Research. This group is the only group working on plasma diagnostics and related technologies in Indian Subcontinent.
SST-2
The next stage of SST mission, the SST-2 fusion reactor, dubbed as 'DEMO' among Indian scientific circles has already been conceived. A group of eminent scientists from Institute for Plasma Research is working towards making of a full-fledged fusion reactor capable of producing electricity. Many new features like D-T plasma, Test Blanket Module, Biological shielding and an improved divertor will be incorporated in SST-2. SST-2 will also be built in the Indian state of Gujarat. The land acquisition and other basic formalities have been completed for the same.
Other fusion reactors
Other designs of
See also
- ADITYA (tokamak)
- Megaproject
- Fusion for Energy, EU organisation managing ITER
- Nuclear power in India
References
- ^ Srinivasan, R. (2015). "Progress on design of SST-2 fusion reactor". Proceedings of the Thirtieth National Symposium on Plasma Science and Technology: Book of Abstracts.
- ^ "India keen to join ITER project - The Economic Times". The Times Of India. 17 August 2005.
- ^ "ITER - India : ITER-India ===". www.iter-india.org. Archived from the original on 2009-03-07.
- ^ a b Int'l Tokamak research:SST-1
- ^ a b SST-1 General Information Archived 2016-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Beyond ITER". iter.org. Archived from the original on 2009-05-20.
- Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik. 3 April 2009. Archived from the originalon 21 May 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ "National Ignition Facility & Photon Science". Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ "HiPER". HiPER Project. 2009. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ "EFDA-JET". EFDA. 2009. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
- ^ "MAST". Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak. 2010. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2010.