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An international team of scientists performs tests on the largest and most sophisticated stellarator, the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment. This complex machine is housed at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. In addition to preparing new experiments, researchers are analyzing data from the first experimental campaign that took place in 2016, in hopes of understanding the science of fusion reactors. In a new report in Physics of Plasmas by AIP Publishing, Shaocheng Liu and his collaborators discuss the first detailed characterization of plasma turbulence on the outer edge of the stellarator.
In Wendelstein 7-X, helium is ionized and heated to 50 million degrees Celsius where it is confined by powerful superconducting magnets, which are cooled to minus 270 degrees Celsius. Superconducting magnets create helical magnetic field lines that have been carefully optimized so that rapidly moving charged particles remain trapped on a toric surface. Like other magnetic confinement devices, turbulence appears in the heated plasma which causes heat and particles to propagate through these surfaces and eventually come into contact with the first wall surrounding the plasma. The characteristics of this turbulence are essential to understanding how to build reactors producing energy in the future.
"The particles must be transported to the target, to the outside, and this edge region is very important for the confinement of particles" Shaocheng Liu, an author on paper
Their article reports the first Plasma turbulence measurements at the Wendelstein limit 7-X. Using a multi-point probe, we see that turbulence propagates in the direction of the ion flow, has a broadband spectrum and changes character during topology changes. magnetic at the edge
"At first, we did not know turbulence behavior. in the Wendelstein 7-X because it's a completely new device, "said Liu." Initially, we did not consider all the factors, such as angle and alignment local flux surfaces, but we have to consider these things because of the three-dimensional structures in the stellarator, so we changed the design of the new probes. "
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Material Provided by American Institute of Physics . Note: Content may be edited by style and by duration.
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