A. Kirschner S.S. Henderson S. Brezinsek J. Romazanov M. Kovari C. Baumann Ch. Linsmeier E. Flynn J. Hess R.T. Osawa S.L. Newton D. Moulton
The tungsten erosion within STEP assuming tungsten main wall and tungsten divertor has been estimated with ERO at the inner and outer divertor, at the inner and outer midplane and at the outboard baffle entrance. Plasma parameters are based on SOLPS simulations applying argon puffing for edge cooling. The modelled peak gross erosion is highest with…
PreprintWilliam Iliffe Simon Chislett-McDonald Fiona Harden Kirk Adams James Tufnail Chris Grovenor Susannah Speller Aidan Reilly Ezzat Nasr
The UKAEA’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program aims to demonstrate the ability of a low aspect ratio tokamak to generate net electricity from deuterium-tritium fusion. Specifically, its aim is to deliver a prototype fusion power plant, targeting 2040, and a path to the commercial viability of fusion, by engaging with and invig…
PreprintR. T. Osawa S. L. Newton D. Moulton S. S. Henderson V. Badicel A. Hudoba
In order to achieve a compatible solution between the divertors and the core, SOLPS-ITER simulations were performed on STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) connected double-null geometry to investigate the possibility of using deuterium (D) fuelling puff locations as an actuator for divertor argon (Ar) retention. Significant reduction of …
PreprintS. B. L. Chislett-McDonald L. Bullock A. Turner F. Schoofs Y. Dieudonne A. Reilly
Rare-earth-barium-copper-oxide (REBCO) coated conductor tapes within next-generation tokamak pilot and power plant magnets will be exposed to broad-spectrum gamma-ray and neutron irradiation concurrently. It has been known since the 1980s that cumulative neutron fluence affects the superconducting properties of REBCO, but the effects of gamma rays …
Preprint PublishedA.N. Petrov S. Wray K. Zarebski T. Stroud J. Acres T. Owoeye M. Cannon F. Christie T. Jackson V. Laksharam S. Stewart R. Griffiths N. Brewer K. Rochford S. Gribben
The work presented in this paper is an integrated time-dependent model, describing the power demands of the major tokamak components (magnets, cryogenics, heating and current drive, etc.), as well as the power generated. The physics are implemented in OpenModelica and make use of a Python API (Application Programming Interface) to collect inputs, r…
PreprintS. Merriman J. Abraham J. Bailey J. Billingsley B. Edwards J. Hagues D. León Hernández N. Mantel N. Otway A. Saigiridhari S. Sherwood P. Ting J. Fradera P. Andrés A. Bernad D. Catalán S. Haouala S. Sádaba B. Echeveste S. Ha
The UK Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program is currently progressing the conceptual engineering design of a Spherical Tokamak-based fusion reactor. The program includes a project concerned with design of the reactor breeding blanket. The objective of this work was to develop a low fidelity, integrated simulation approach to sup…
PreprintDaniel Kennedy Bhavin S Patel Colin M Roach
Microinstabilities often result in turbulence that influences energy confinement in tokamak discharges. One such microinstability, of particular importance to the design of next-generation spherical tokamaks (STs) such as STEP [1], is the microtearing mode (MTM), a tearing-parity mode centred on high-order rational surfaces. MTMs are short-wavel…
PreprintR. T. Osawa D. Moulton S. L. Newton S. Henderson B. Lipschultz A. Hudoba
To mitigate the issue of plasma exhaust in reactor scale tight aspect ratio tokamaks such as STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), a double-null (DN) configuration is thought to be advantageous over a single-null (SN) configuration. However, practical control of the plasma vertical stability will likely lead to an oscillation around th…
PreprintHendrik Meyer the STEP Plasma Control Heating & Current Drive Team
With steady progress on ITER project and the design of DEMO, the international community is now entering an era in which fusion power on the grid could become a reality within the next 20 – 30 years. In this environment the UK has started the ambitious Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme, aiming to develop a compact protot…
PreprintJ.H.P. Rice J. Geng C.W. Bumby H.W. Weijers S. Wray H. Zhang F. Schoofs D. Moseley R.A. Badcock
High temperature superconducting magnets offer a novel pathway to magnetic confinement fusion energy generation. Reactor-scale fusion devices require tens of kA of current to generate large toroidal fields for magnetic confinement. Operating HTS magnets at kA-current levels is difficult due to unavoidable joint resistances that require active dr…
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