Session JT2: Tutorial: Considerations of the High Magnetic Field Tokamak Path on the Approach to Fusion Energy

Considerations of the high magnetic field tokamak path on the approach to fusion energy

This tutorial will review the physics basis, and its applications, for high magnetic field, compact visions of steady-state pilot plants and fusion reactors. This includes: energy and particle confinement; transport barriers; heating and current drive; scrape-off layer and divertor physics including implications for power handling, and ash/impurity control. The development of new technologies, particularly high-temperature, high critical magnetic field superconducting materials opens a new opportunity to consider the leverage of on-axis magnetic fields of 10T or more, enabling the feasibility of smaller sized devices on the path to fusion energy, including a pilot plant which could produce hundreds of megawatts of net electricity in a 10T tokamak with major radius of order 3 meter. Incorporating jointed magnetic coils, also made feasible by the high temperature superconductors, can dramatically improve flexibility of experimental superconducting facilities, and ultimately maintainability for reactor systems. Steady-state requires high bootstrap fraction, combined with efficient off-axis current drive, and existing and new approaches for RF sustainment will be covered, including Lower Hybrid Current Drive (both from the low- and high-field side), ECCD, and fast-wave techniques. External torque drive from neutral beams, routinely used in most present-day experiments to enhance confinement and suppress instabilities, will be weak or absent in reactors. Alternative, RF-based flow drive, using mode-converted ICRF waves will be discussed. All reactor concepts have extraordinary power handling requirements, combined with stringent limits on PFC erosion and impurity sources; the current state of the art in divertor configurations will be compared with emerging and new concepts, including snowflake, x-point, x-divertor and liquid metals, to meet these challenges.