Work

Progress in the pre-conceptual design of the auxiliary heating and current drive system for the Tokamak Energy Fusion Pilot Plant

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Auxiliary heating and current drive is a crucial aspect of reactor-relevant tokamaks. Tokamak Energy is currently in the design phase of their Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP). Initial investigations for the flat-top phase of plasma scenarios rely exclusively on electron cyclotron (EC) waves as auxiliary heating and current drive source. This work focuses on parametric optimisation of the flat-top EC current drive scheme via ray-tracing simulations for three plasma scenarios, each having different magnetic field and aspect ratio. The purpose of the study is to maximise the normalised current drive efficiency ζ ECCD. It is shown that EC waves in the O mode polarisation are capable of efficiently driving plasma current throughout the plasma volume, supporting the notion that EC waves can be the single auxiliary power source for flat-top operations.

Source: Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology)

DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/202634602014/pdf

Authors: Aleksandra Alieva, Nicolas Lopez, Steven McNamara, Yuichi Takase, Xin Zhang

Institution: Tokamak Energy (United Kingdom)

Language: English

Topic: Magnetic confinement fusion research

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7119486479

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