WEST, Tungsten (
chemical symbol "W") Environment in Steady-state Tokamak, (formerly Tore Supra) is a French
tokamak that originally began operating as Tore Supra after the discontinuation of
TFR (Tokamak of
Fontenay-aux-Roses) and of Petula (in
Grenoble). The original name came from the words
torus and
superconductor, as ''Tore Supra'' was for a long time the only tokamak of this size with
superconducting toroidal magnets, allowing the creation of a strong permanent toroidal
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
. After a major upgrade to install tungsten walls and a divertor, the tokamak was renamed WEST.
WEST is situated at the nuclear research center of
Cadarache,
Bouches-du-Rhône in
Provence, one of the sites of the
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique. Tore Supra operated between 1988 and 2010. Its goal was to create long-duration plasmas. The upgrade to WEST took place between 2013 and 2016. WEST has been operating since 2016.
Tore Supra holds the record of the longest plasma duration time for a tokamak (6 minutes 30 seconds
[ and over 1000 MJ of energy injected and extracted in 2003), and it allowed researchers to test critical parts of equipment such as plasma facing wall components or superconducting magnets that will be used in its successor, ]ITER
ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Earth ...
.
Device parameters
Tore Supra as of 1988:
* Major plasma radius (machine centre to plasma centre) : 2.25 m
* Minor plasma radius: 0.70 m
* Toroidal magnetic field on the center of the plasma core: 4.5 T
* Plasma current: 1.7 MA
* Longest plasma discharge (predicted): 1000 s
* Auxiliary plasma heating ( ion and electron cyclotron resonance heating and lower hybrid current drive): 20 MW
Tore Supra as of 2006 (parameters essentially the same):[THE TORE SUPRA TOKAMAK]
/ref>
* Weight of NbTi superconductor : ~45 tonnes
* Maximum magnetic field on the conductor : 9.0 T
* Total magnetic energy : 600 MJ
* Weight of magnetic circuit : 830 tonnes
WEST as of 2018:
*Major plasma radius (machine centre to plasma centre) : 2.5 m
* Minor plasma radius: 0.50 m
* Toroidal magnetic field on the center of the plasma core: 3.7 T
* Plasma current: 1 MA
* Longest plasma discharge (predicted): 1000 s
* Auxiliary plasma heating ( ion and electron cyclotron resonance heating and lower hybrid current drive): 17 MW
Tore Supra Operation 1988-2010
By 1998 it had produced over 20,000 plasma shots of up to 2 minutes duration.[Tore Supra, description, results.]
Select 6. main/major results
Between 2000 and 2002 the vacuum chamber was completely renewed/relined. increasing the power extraction by active cooling to 25 MW (to allow longer plasma duration).
Select 4. Extracting power[6.5-minute pulse in Tore Supra. Dec 2003]
/ref> This was plasma shot #32299, Lower hybrid power ~2.9 MW, total injected energy ~1.1 GJ, plasma current ~500 kA, nl ~ 2.6x1019/m2.[
]
WEST
Beginning in March 2013[At 25 Tore Supra is looking WESTward]
/ref> Tore Supra underwent an extensive refit, including new poloidal coils to achieve diverted operation, a new cooling system, and all-metal cladding, mainly for experiments on tungsten divertor technology for ITER
ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Earth ...
.First plasma for WEST fusion reactor (World Nuclear News, 19 December 2016)
/ref>
The reactor was renamed WEST, for "Tungsten ( chemical symbol "W") Environment in Steady-state Tokamak".[WEST winds up for fusion. Dec 2015]
/ref> WEST achieved first plasma in December 2016.[WEST: first plasma shot announcement]
/ref>
References
External links
EURATOM
The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...
- CEA (in French)
Tore Supra Official Site - in English
{{fusion experiments
Tokamaks
Laboratories in France