Tokamak Energy Fusion Development
Technical lecture
13 March 2018 19:00 - 20:00
This event has finished
Description

The presentation will provide an insight in to the Tokamak Energy Fusion Development programme. Tokamak Energy are not just a paper exercise, but are putting the theory into practise. By designing and building prototype fusion devices, they learn from each one to develop the next.
Two recent developments in fusion research promise to open a faster route to
fusion power. A re-examination of the ITER confinement databases has shown
that for tokamaks the fusion gain, Qfus, depends only weakly on device size
implying that, at least from a physics perspective, a high fusion performance can be obtained in relatively small devices. Reduction factors of three or four in
power and at least an order of magnitude in volume appear feasible from a
physics perspective.
The main size drivers are found to be engineering and
technological aspects rather than physics considerations. The magnets are a
major size driver and high-temperature superconductors (HTS) appear to offer
significant advantages over low-temperature superconductors as used in current devices. These developments combine well in the spherical tokamak (ST), which
is a tokamak with a relatively low ratio of the plasma major radius to minor
radius, i.e. a tokamak with a shape that resembles a cored-apple rather than the
traditional doughnut.
An approach based on STs fitted with HTS magnets is
being pursued by Tokamak Energy Ltd, a privately funded company based in
Oxfordshire; rapid and promising progress is being made.
Details of both developments will be presented and the opportunities and challenges of this alternative route to fusion, including the development of a technology roadmap through the key engineering and technological challenges, will be outlined.
Tokamak Energy Lecture
Speaker(s)
Alan Costley, a PhD graduate of Imperial College, has worked in fusion for more than 40 years. He has held senior positions at the JET project and on the international ITER project. He now and works mostly for Tokamak Energy Ltd, attempting to find a faster route to fusion power.
Address
Physics, Lecture Theatre B
Building 46, Room 2003
University of Southampton
Highfield Campus
Southampton
SO17 1PQ
United Kingdom