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UKAEA-STEP-PR(26)122025
The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) is the UK’s flagship program to design a prototype fusion power plant capable of delivering net electricity to the grid. Due to geometric constraints in spherical tokamaks, STEP is being developed for fully non-inductive operation, relying primarily on microwav…
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UKAEA-CCFE-PR(25)3662025
This study presents the validation of the frequency-domain finite element code ERMES 20.0, benchmarked against Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) solvers. The simulations focus on Ordinary–Extraordinary (O–X) mode conversion in the Electron Bernstein Wave (EBW) regime of the MAST Upgrade experiment. Validation is performed in terms of mode c…
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UKAEA-CCFE-PR(25)3152025
Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) is a flexible auxiliary heating method for tokamak plasmas, capable of being efficiently coupled to the various plasma configurations required in the Tritium and mixed Deuterium-Tritium Experimental campaign (DTE2) on the JET device. High NBI power was required for high fusion yield and alpha particle studies and to …
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)232024
Electron Bernstein waves (EBWs) are theorised to efficiently drive current in spherical tokamak power plants, e.g. Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). At high temperatures (Te ≳4keV), relativistic effects can significantly impact wave propagation. This work presents relativistic calculations of EBW wave propagation, damping, and curre…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(26)052024
STEP is a spherical tokamak prototype power plant that is being designed to demonstrate net electric power. The design phase involves the exploitation of plasma models to optimise fusion performance subject to satisfying various physics and engineering constraints. A modelling workflow, including integrated core plasma modelling, MHD stability a…
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UKAEA-CCFE-PR(25)2692024
A linear-elastic computer simulation (model) for a single particle of TRISO fuel has been built using a bond-based peridynamic technique implemented in the finite element code ‘Abaqus’. The model is able to consider the elastic and thermal strains in each layer of the particle and to simulate potential fracture both within and between layers…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(25)272023
Electron Bernstein current drive (EBCD) systems are sensitive to plasma and launch conditions, and therefore require large parametric scans to optimise their design. One particular bottleneck in the simulation workflow is quasilinear modelling of current drive efficiency. Linear adjoint models are an attractive alternative, offering a ∼103× spee…
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UKAEA-CCFE-PR(23)1662023
MAST-Upgrade (MAST-U) is undergoing several enhancements to deliver increased performance and functionality. One such enhancement is the design, development, and implementation of an Electron Bernstein Wave (EBW) Heating and Current Drive (HCD) System. The MAST-U EBW System aims to provide experimental data for model validation, and to provide a…
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UKAEA-STEP-CP(24)022022
The UK’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) reactor design program has recently taken the decision to use exclusively microwave-based heating and current drive (HCD) actuators for its reactor concepts. This is based on a detailed assessment considering all viable HCD concepts, covering the grid to plasma efficiency (), physics applica…
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UKAEA-CCFE-CP(23)532022
The ITER Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) source prototype SPIDER (Source for the Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from a Radio frequency plasma), hosted at the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) in Padova, Italy, has recently started operating with evaporated caesium in the source. This moves the primary H- production mechanism from volume to…
Showing 1 - 10 of 47 UKAEA Paper Results