Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Time: 4:15-5:30 PM; Refreshments at 4:00 PM
Location: Bldg. 320, Rm #221
Recent developments and future directions in
fusion energy science
Dr. Raffi Nazikian
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab,
Princeton University
Abstract
The achievement of an economically viable sustainable fusion energy
source represents a grand scientific challenge for the 21st century.
Progress in fusion requires continued innovation in confinement concepts,
improved scientific understanding of the linear and nonlinear phenomena
controlling macroscopic behavior, and the development of tools for the
control of the plasma state. A key parameter for fusion performance is
the plasma pressure, which relates directly to the fusion power
production. Progress in understanding operational pressure limits in
terms of linear stability and nonlinear secondary instabilities is
discussed. New innovative methods for feedback control of
performance-limiting instabilities has achieved dramatic success in
recent years. The fusion gain, or power output over the input power, is a
second key parameter for a viable fusion reactor. The fusion gain is
related to the heat and particle transport across magnetic field lines
which is mostly determined by turbulent fluctuations. The observation
that the plasma can bifurcate into regimes of low and high thermal
confinement has generated a great deal of interest in recent years. New
theoretical and experimental tools are shedding light on the relation
between small scale behavior and global plasma performance, leading to
new ideas on how to achieve controllable enhanced confinement regimes.
The success in the science of fusion cannot be sustained without the
development of new facilities for testing and extending our improved
understanding. Discussion of the status of the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the current situation in
the US program will be presented.