Microwave current drive in prototype spherical tokamak reactors

我的背景是在自然科学专业的综合硕士在约克大学物理，在2021年毕业。在我的学位期间，我很幸运地完成了STEP的微波电流驱动工作的暑期实习，这引发了我对等离子体物理学的兴趣和将聚变能带到国家电网的热情。我的硕士项目也是等离子体物理，研究如何模拟高功率托卡马克偏滤器中的漂移效应。在我的聚变CDT项目中，我又回到了微波电流驱动方面，特别是在球形托卡马克原型启动过程中使用电子伯恩斯坦波。为了将等离子体限制在托卡马克中，我们需要产生通过等离子体本身的电流。到目前为止，这是通过感应使用螺线管下的中心设备。然而，如果我们设计一个球形托卡马克动力装置，这种方法有缺点。这包括中心柱没有太多的空间，我们希望在相当长的时间内运行动力装置。微波电流驱动提供了解决这两个问题的方案，因为回旋管可以位于远离设备的地方，并且可以长时间使用。因此，如果我们能够设计一个系统来在两个操作阶段驱动等离子体电流，那将是理想的：启动（当等离子体形成时）和稳态（操作的主要阶段，当产生能量时）。稳态微波电流驱动已经被广泛研究，但启动阶段的研究还不多，因此，本课题的目标是寻找一种适用于等离子体启动阶段的微波系统。这是约克大学、CCFE和托卡马克能源公司之间的合作，我将在罗迪·范恩、西蒙·弗里希、弗拉基米尔·舍甫琴科和伊拉斯谟斯·杜·托伊特的监督下工作。

My background is an integrated masters in Natural Sciences specialising in Physics at the University of York, graduating in 2021. During my degree I was fortunate enough to complete a summer internship working on microwave current drive for STEP which triggered my interest in plasma physics and passion for bringing fusion energy to the National Grid. My masters project was also in plasma physics, looking at how we can model the effect of drifts in the divertor of high power tokamaks.For my project on the Fusion CDT, I am back to working on microwave current drive, particularly the use of Electron Bernstein Waves during start-up for prototype spherical tokamaks.In order to confine a plasma inside a tokamak, we need to generate a current through the plasma itself. So far, this has been done through induction using a solenoid down the centre of the device. However, there are disadvantages in this approach if we are designing a spherical tokamak power plant. This includes that there is not very much space in the centre column and that we want to be operating the powerplant for substantial amounts of time. Microwave current drive offers a solution to both of these problems as the gyrotrons can be located a long way away from the device and can be used for long periods of time. Therefore, it would be ideal if we could design a system to drive the plasma current throughout both phases of operation: start-up (when the plasma is being formed) and steady-state (the main phase of operation, when energy is generated). Microwave current drive in steady-state has been studied extensively but start-up is less well understood.Therefore, my project will aim to find a microwave system for the start-up phase of the plasma. It is a collaboration between the University of York, CCFE and Tokamak Energy and I will be working under the supervision of Roddy Vann, Simon Freethy, Vladimir Shevchenko and Erasmus du Toit.