S. Chen N. Correa Villanueva S. Kirk S. Capp O. Fordham A. Reeves S. Jones R. Khan A. Sergi C. Thompson
During development of the UKAEA’S Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), assessment of manufacturing strategies for the inboard shield identified several gaps in knowledge. Limits arose from the modularization of this component, geometric constraints of tungsten ceramic forming, joining with low-activation interlayers and dissimilar j…
PreprintM. Anderton C. Baus T. P. Davis R. Pearson K. Mukai J. Pollard K. Taylor S. Kirk J. Hagues
Tritium self-sufficiency is one of the fundamental challenges for deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reactors. The combination of key high temperature radiation shielding materials that possess dense, high neutron absorption cross-section, and moderation properties, and tritium breeding materials could involve interesting design spaces for the centra…
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…
PreprintG. McArdle M. Kochan C. Vincent L. Swaidani H. Anand D. Eldon W. Wehner G. Derks S. Elmore B. Kool K. Verhaegh R. Sarwar B. Parry R. Scannell J. Harrison A. Thornton A. Kirk G. Cunningham the MAST Upgrade Team
The real time plasma control system for the MAST Upgrade tokamak has been substantially redeveloped from its original MAST incarnation with a new architecture that aims to manage complexity whilst maximising flexibility. It provides modular layers of functionality and supports the implementation of virtual actuators to aggregate, arbitrate and rout…
PreprintD A Ryan R Martin N B Ayed L Kogan A Kirk the MAST Upgrade team
MAST Upgrade has just begun its second physics campaign. The set of magnetic probes used to diagnose the magnetic field and currents on MAST Upgrade are described, and their calibration procedures outlined including calculation of uncertainties. The arrays of installed instability diagnostics are described and the detection and diagnosis of a speci…
Preprint PublishedS. Elmore A. J. Thornton R. Scannell A. Kirk the MAST Team
Understanding the plasma parameters that affect the scrape off layer (SOL) width is a key issue for future tokamaks as the power entering the SOL (of order 100 MW [1] in ITER) and the SOL width (of order millimetres [2]) determine the heat flux to the divertor surfaces. The Eich scaling [2] can be used to characterise the divertor heat flux prof…
Preprint PublishedS. Omole A. J. G. Lunt S. Kirk A. Shokrania
The high ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of tungsten combined with its high hardness make machining incredibly difficult. These properties typically result in the poor-quality machined surfaces and short tool life. In this study, TiAlN coated carbide tools with different rake angles (8°, 10° and 12°) were tested in convention…
PreprintWilliam Iliffe Kirk Adams Nianhua Peng Greg Brittles Rod Bateman Aidan Reilly Chris Grovenor Susannah Speller
Commercial fusion power plants will require strong magnetic fields that can only be achieved using state-of-the-art high temperature superconductors in the form of REBCO coated conductors. In operation in a fusion machine, the magnet windings will be exposed to fast neutrons that are known to adversely affect the superconducting properties of RE…
Preprint PublishedS. Saarelma J.W. Connor P. Bilkova P. Bohm A.R. Field L. Frassinetti R. Fridstrom A. Kirk JET Contributors*
The neutral ionisation model proposed by R J Groebner et al. (Phys Plasmas 9 2134 (2002)) to determine the plasma density profile in the H-mode pedestal, extended to include charge exchange processes in the pedestal stimulated by the ideas of Mahdavi et al. ((Phys Plasmas 10 3984 (2003)). The model is then teste…
Preprint PublishedC. Vincent S. Allan G. Naylor R. Stephen S. Bray A. Thornton A. Kirk
Neutron flux measurements are important in fusion devices for both safety requirements and physics studies. A newsystem has been built for the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak Upgrade (MAST Upgrade) that provides neutron count,DC and Campbell mode measurements for a 1μsperiod at 1 MHz. The acquisition system uses a Red Pitaya board tosample current from…
Preprint Published