Burning plasma simulation of TR-1 tokamak and HR-1 helical reactors

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design 2006-11, Vol.81 (23), p.2743-2748
• Main Authors: Yamazaki, K., Higashiyama, Y., Sawafuji, T., Sakawa, Y., Arimoto, H., Shoji, T., Garcia, J., Dies, J., Igitkhanov, Yu, Dolan, T.J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Burning plasma; Controled nuclear fusion plants; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Helical reactor; Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy; POPCON plot; Tokamak reactor; Transport simulation
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2006.07.042

For comparative assessment of tokamak and helical reactors, two base case reactor designs with 1 GW electric power output are introduced; high-field high-beta compact tokamak reactor TR-1 (major radius R = 5.2 m, magnetic field B = 7.1 T) and high-beta helical system HR-1 ( R = 12.1 m, B = 4.6 T). Operational boundaries of both reactors are compared by the zero-dimensional energy balance model, which clarifies the difference between the higher temperature operational regime of TR-1 and the lower temperature regime of HR-1. These operational scenarios are reconfirmed by the toroidal transport analysis linkage (TOTAL) code coupling with two-dimensional equilibrium in the TOTAL-T tokamak code and three-dimensional equilibrium in the TOTAL-H helical code. The beta effect on confinement degradation and the impurity radiation effect on energy balance are found to make the ignition difficult in both systems.