Tokamak plasmas with density up to ten times the Greenwald limit

Current-carrying, toroidal laboratory plasmas typically cannot be sustained with an electron density above the empirical Greenwald limit. Presented here are tokamak experiments in the Madison Symmetric Torus with a density up to an unprecedented level about ten times this limit. This is thought to b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2024-01, Vol.133 (5)
Main Authors: Hurst, N. C., Chapman, B. E., Sarff, J. S., Almagri, A. F., McCollam, K. J., Den Hartog, D. J., Flahavan, J. B., Forest, C. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Current-carrying, toroidal laboratory plasmas typically cannot be sustained with an electron density above the empirical Greenwald limit. Presented here are tokamak experiments in the Madison Symmetric Torus with a density up to an unprecedented level about ten times this limit. This is thought to be made possible in part by a thick, stabilizing, conductive wall, and a high-voltage, feedback-controlled power supply driving the plasma current. The radial profile of the toroidal current flattens around twice the limit, without the edge collapse routinely observed in other experiments.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114