2019Unpublished venueOpen access

Not one more US tokamak

G. A. Wurden, USDOE Office of Science (SC). Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24), T.E. Evans

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Abstract

The tokamak has been the primary magnetic fusion confinement platform in the USA since the Model C Stellarator was converted to the Symmetric Tokamak in 1970. The tokamak concept holds records for the best fusion performance parameters of any MFE concept, to-date. Presently, the only mid-scale operating US DOE magnetic fusion confinement facility, is the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics in San Diego (at least until NSTX-U repairs are completed). But it has been more than thirty years since DIII-D was first put into operation. There is not a single new next-generation DOE-funded mid-scale (or larger) magnetic fusion confinement facility planned in the USA for the next 10 years. When and if there is a next generation new US domestic confinement machine funded by DOE, it should not be a tokamak.

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What this paper is about

The tokamak has been the primary magnetic fusion confinement platform in the USA since the Model C Stellarator was converted to the Symmetric Tokamak in 1970. The tokamak concept holds records for the best fusion performance parameters of any MFE concept, to-date. Presently, the only mid-scale operating US DOE magnetic fusion confinement facility, is the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics in San Diego (at least until NSTX-U repairs are completed). But it has been more than thirty years since DIII-D was first put into operation. There is not a single new next-generation DOE-funded mid-scale (or larger) magnetic fusion confinement facility planned in the USA for the next 10 years. When and if there is a next generation new US domestic confinement machine funded by DOE, it should not be a tokamak.

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Available abstract

The tokamak has been the primary magnetic fusion confinement platform in the USA since the Model C Stellarator was converted to the Symmetric Tokamak in 1970. The tokamak concept holds records for the best fusion performance parameters of any MFE concept, to-date. Presently, the only mid-scale operating US DOE magnetic fusion confinement facility, is the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics in San Diego (at least until NSTX-U repairs are completed). But it has been more than thirty years since DIII-D was first put into operation. There is not a single new next-generation DOE-funded mid-scale (or larger) magnetic fusion confinement facility planned in the USA for the next 10 years. When and if there is a next generation new US domestic confinement machine funded by DOE, it should not be a tokamak.

Key concepts: Tokamak, Magnetic confinement fusion, Nuclear engineering, Plasma confinement, Fusion, Scale (ratio), Nuclear physics, Stellarator

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