UK Magnetic Fusion Research Programme

国际核聚变研究的目的是利用加热太阳和其他恒星的过程，开发一种新的、大规模的、无碳的能源，没有供应安全或重大的长期废物问题。最先进的方法是使用强磁场使非常热的电离气体（等离子体）远离材料表面。主要的挑战是尽量减少等离子体的能量损失，保持其稳定并处理其高排气功率，以及开发可靠的材料和组件，能够承受多年的高功率热流和核聚变产生的非常热的中子，这些中子将成为发电的热源。2010-2016年epsrc支持的CCFE磁聚变研究项目（也由EURATOM资助）将响应2009年RCUK对英国聚变研究战略的审查结果。这强调了逐步将研究重心从物理转向技术的必要性，其长期目标是在核聚变电站建成时，使英国工业成为主要参与者。RCUK的融合咨询委员会已经批准了这一前瞻性计划的主要目标。这笔拨款将覆盖英国为CCFE的联合欧洲环面（JET）提供的资金，该实验目前是世界领先的聚变实验。在2010年代，JET将被ITER取代，ITER是法国正在建设的国际装置。英国项目的核心是MAST。在拨款期间，将进行一次30米的重大升级，以实现更高功率、更长的脉冲实验，甚至是热等离子体（约5000万度）。MAST是一个球形托卡马克，这是ccfe首创的一个概念，与传统的托卡马克（如JET和iter）相比，它具有更紧密的磁瓶设计。MAST实验的主要目的是：(a)确定ST是否适合作为小型设备的基础，用于测试未来聚变电站的组件，以及(b)提高对托卡马克物理的理解，以帮助优化ITER的开发。除了升级MAST之外，该计划的主要内容如下（都涉及与英国大学和海外组织的大量合作）：1)在MAST上进行实验，并对托卡马克等离子体的稳定性、约束、排气、启动和维持方面进行相关理论和建模；2)与其他欧洲聚变科学家一起参与JET计划；重点评估了JET的新型金属等离子体面壁对等离子体性能的影响及其对ITER的影响。在2015年左右，将会有使用聚变燃料（氘和氚的混合物）的实验——JET是唯一可以使用氚的机器3)通过理论和建模（与英国大学的实验进行了测试）改进聚变电站的结构和等离子体表面材料，并评估新的JET壁上钨和铍的性能4)为ITER设计专门的加热和测量技术。并促进英国工业界参与采购这些和其他ITER系统。5)逐步从ITER技术转移到示范核聚变电站所需的技术，为欧洲联合设计研究做出贡献——其中一些工作将有助于卢瑟福-阿普尔顿实验室研究的欠发达的基于激光的惯性方法的核聚变电站。这将需要类似的中子捕获和高热通量技术6)为了帮助实现上述所有目标，利用英国大学在等离子体和材料科学与技术方面的相关专业知识，并在多个学科对学生进行培训。

The purpose of international fusion research is to harness the process that heats the sun andother stars, to develop a new, large scale, carbon-free energy source without security ofsupply or major long-term waste problems. The most developed approach uses strongmagnetic fields to keep the very hot, ionised gas (plasma) away from material surfaces.The main challenges are to minimise energy losses from the plasma, keep it stable andhandle its high exhaust power, and to develop reliable materials and components that canwithstand years of high power fluxes of heat and the very hot neutrons created by fusionwhich will be the heat source for electricity generation.The 2010-2016 EPSRC-supported magnetic fusion research programme at CCFE (alsofunded by EURATOM) will respond to the findings of the 2009 RCUK review of UK fusionresearch strategy. This emphasised the need to shift gradually the balance of research fromphysics to technology, with the long-term aim to position UK industry to be a major playerwhen fusion power stations are built. The RCUK's Fusion Advisory Board has endorsed themain thrusts of this forward programme. The grant will cover UK funding for the JointEuropean Torus (JET) at CCFE, presently the world's leading fusion experiment. In the2010s, JET will be superseded by ITER, the international device under construction inFrance.The centrepiece of the UK programme is MAST. A major 30M upgrade will be implementedduring the grant period, to enable higher power, longer pulse experiments with even hotterplasmas (around 50 million degrees). MAST is a spherical tokamak, a concept pioneered atCCFE with a tighter design of magnetic bottle than conventional tokamaks like JET andITER. The main aims of MAST experiments are to (a) determine whether the ST would be asuitable basis for a compact device to test components for future fusion power stations, and(b) improve tokamak physics understanding to help optimise exploitation of ITER. Aside fromupgrading MAST, the main strands of the programme are as follows (all involve considerablecollaboration with UK universities and overseas organisations):1) Experiments on MAST, and related theory and modelling, on the stability, confinement,exhaust, start-up and sustainment aspects of tokamak plasmas2) Participation, with other European fusion scientists, in the JET programme, concentratingon assessing of the effect of JET's new metal plasma-facing wall on plasma performanceand the implications for ITER. In around 2015 there will be experiments using the fusion fuel(a mixture of deuterium and tritium) - JET is the only machine that can use tritium3) Improving structural and plasma-facing materials for fusion power stations through theoryand modelling (tested against experiments in UK universities) and assessments of theperformance of tungsten and beryllium in the new JET wall4) Designing specialist heating and measurement technologies for ITER, and facilitating theinvolvement of UK industry in the procurement of these and other ITER systems5) Gradually moving from ITER technologies to those needed for a demonstration fusionpower station to follow ITER, contributing to joint European design studies - some of thiswork will assist the less-developed laser-based inertial approach to fusion power stations,studied at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, which would need similar neutron-captureand high heat flux technologies6) To help all of the above, tapping relevant UK university expertise in plasma and materialssciences and technology, with student training in many disciplines.