The history of research into improved confinement regimes

Increasing the pressure by additional heating of magnetically confined plasmas had the consequence that turbulent processes became more violent and plasma confinement degraded. Since this experience from the early 1980ies, fusion research was dominated by the search for confinement regimes with impr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean physical journal H Vol. 43; no. 4-5; pp. 523 - 549
Main Author Wagner, F.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2018
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Astronomy
Astrophysics and Cosmology
Confinement
High temperature plasmas
History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics
History of Science
Measurement Science and Instrumentation
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Plasma
Plasma physics in the 20th century as told by players
Quantum Physics
R&D
Research & development
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Summary:Increasing the pressure by additional heating of magnetically confined plasmas had the consequence that turbulent processes became more violent and plasma confinement degraded. Since this experience from the early 1980ies, fusion research was dominated by the search for confinement regimes with improved properties. It was a gratifying experience that toroidally confined plasmas are able to self-organise in such a way that turbulence diminishes, resulting in a confinement with good prospects to reach the objectives of fusion R&D. The understanding of improved confinement regimes revolutionized the understanding of turbulent transport in high-temperature plasmas. In this paper the story of research into improved confinement regimes will be narrated starting with 1980.
ISSN:2102-6459
2102-6467
DOI:10.1140/epjh/e2016-70064-9