tokamak The KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) tokamak source has been tested for 12 years. Now KSTAR has set a new world record for plasma confinement in a magnetic field - as much as 20 seconds. The previous time record was 8 seconds. According to the project roadmap, in 5 years it should increase 15 times. During the current tests, the plasma temperature was 100 million degrees Celsius. Let's tell the details.
What is KSTAR known for?
The main purpose of the KSTAR tokamak is to study the methods and features of long-term confinement of deuterium and hydrogen plasma in a magnetic field. This is necessary, among other things, for the operation of the ITER thermonuclear reactor. Its design has long been completed, now construction is underway in the center of Qatar in the south of France.
What is the record set this time?
Physicists have been experimenting with the plasma confinement time in the KSTAR tokamak for all 12 years. In March last year, it was possible to bring the confinement period of the ultra-high temperature plasma to 8 seconds. The South Korean National Thermonuclear Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) announced a new record for plasma confinement lasting longer than 10 seconds. In late November, KSTAR held the plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds.
A new record was set in the regime in which the level of turbulence in the plasma was reduced, but the temperature of the central region of the plasma column was increased in comparison with the H-mode . In this mode, the plasma is more stable and better retained.
The result of all experiments with the KSTAR tokamak should be a thermonuclear reaction with a power of up to 500 megawatts for 1000 seconds. After 5 years, scientists set a goal to achieve a 300-second plasma confinement.
By 2040, NFRI plans to commission a new generation demonstration reactor, K-DEMO . The reactor will generate electricity.
Tokamak was designed in the USSR 70 years ago. Subsequently, the idea of physicist O. Lavrent'ev was supported by A. Sakharov and I. Tamm . The first operating tokamak was built in 1954. For 14 years, such devices existed only in the USSR, since other countries did not dare to implement such a complex project, and not all scientists believed that the tokamak would work.
