S.F. Smith S.J.P. Pamela M. Hölzl G.T.A. Huijsmans A. Kirk D. Moulton A.J. Thornton H.R. Wilson
During edge localised modes (ELMs) high heat fluxes are incident on divertor targets, which future fusion devices will not withstand [1]. A solution to reduce the heat fluxes could be the new Super-X divertor, which will be tested on the MAST-U tokamak. The divertor has an increased connection length, magnetic flux expansion and is designed to reta…
Preprint PublishedM.S. Anastopoulos-Tzanis C.H. Ham H.R. Wilson
H-mode tokamak plasmas are typically characterised by quasi-periodic instabilities called edge localised modes (ELMs) driven by unstable peeling-ballooning modes [1]. For large scale fusion power plants, the predicted particle and heat fluxes are unacceptable, and an active ELM control method is required. One promising method relies on t…
Preprint PublishedStuart I. Muldrew Hanni Lux Tim C. Hender Bhavin Patel Peter J. Knight Garry M. Voss Howard R. Wilson
Spherical Tokamaks offer a number of potential advantages for a future fusion power plant. They have a high ratio of thermal to magnetic field pressure (beta) and strong flows, either of which could result in reduced turbulence. Fewer Toroidal Field (TF) coils and a different geometry offers the potential for new methods of remote maintenance …
Preprint PublishedC.J. Ham S.C. Cowley H.W. Wilson
The nonlinear phase of MHD ballooning modes determines whether they are essentially benign or disruptive. Disruptive or hard limits are produced by ballooning modes across magnetic confinement fusion, for example; as ELMs, some tokamak disruptions [1], and perhaps the LHD Core Density Collapse [2]. This work improves our understanding of how these …
Preprint PublishedChristopher Ham Andrew Kirk Stanislas Pamela Howard Wilson
Fusion is one of very few options for sustainable, baseload power to the grid that is necessary to meet the energy needs of future generations. The tokamak is the most advanced approach to fusion and, with the construction of ITER, we are approaching power plant conditions. While commercialisation of this key technology is a main driver for tokamak…
Preprint PublishedH. Wilson
Some of the main plasma physics challenges associated with achieving the conditions for commercial fusion power in tokamaks are reviewed. The confinement quality is considered to be a key factor, having an impact on the size of the reactor and exhaust power that has to be managed. Plasma eruptions can cause excessive erosion if not mitigated, with …
Preprint PublishedA. Davis J. Barzilla A. Ferrari K. T. Lee V. Vlachoudis P. P. H. Wilson
As part of the expansion of the Direct Accelerated Geometry Monte Carlo (DAGMC) toolkit to support other Monte Carlo codes, FluDAG (FLUKA integrated with DAGMC) was developed. There has been increasing demand from the high energy physics community regarding Computer Aided Design (CAD) geometry support in Monte Carlo codes. In this paper, the develo…
Preprint PublishedK. Imada H. R. Wilson J. W. Connor A. Dudkovskaia P. Hill
A new drift-kinetic theory of the ion response to magnetic islands in tokamak plasmas is presented. Small islands are considered, with widths w much smaller than the plasma radius r, but comparable to the trapped ion orbit width ρ_bi. An expansion in w/r reduces the system dimensions from five down to four. In the absence of an electrostatic poten…
Preprint PublishedC J Ham S C Cowley G Brochard H R Wilson
The theory of stability and saturation of nonlinear ballooning modes in tokamaks is developed using a generalised Archimedes’ principle which is justified for thin elliptical flux tubes. The equation of motion in general geometry is derived and then applied to a simplified ‘s-a’ equilibrium and the nonlinear dynamics of this equilibr…
Preprint PublishedP. A. Abdoul D. Dickinson C. M. Roach H. R. Wilson
In this work, using solutions from a local gyrokinetic flux-tube code combined with higher order ballooning theory, a new analytical approach is developed to reconstruct the global linear mode structure with associated global mode frequency. In addition to the isolated mode (IM), which usually peaks on the outboard mid-plane, the higher order ballo…
Preprint Published