Page 10 - Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design

xviii Preface

Hand-made thermonuclear fusion produced a weapon of a whopping de-
structive power. However, while building up their nuclear weapon stockpiles,
many nations strive to tame the fusion monster.
By the beginning of the 1950s, I.E. Tamm and A.D. Sakharov laid the
theoretical foundations for one of the future fusion reactor versions, a toroidal
plasma column in a strong longitudinal magnetic field, which became a tokamak
prototype. In 1951, L. Spitzer, an American astrophysicist, developed the idea
of a stellarator. In 1956, after I.V. Kurchatov delivered a lecture at Harwell, it
became clear that nuclear fusion has an unprecedented potential for science
and technology (energy science, plasma physics and related areas), geopoli-
tics (international cooperation projects), defence policy and diplomacy (the
‘nuclear deterrence’ strategic tool). This potential has been consistently realised
throughout the past decades.
The early period of nuclear fusion research was full of euphoria and be-
lief in quick solutions of complex problems. It was an immensely exciting
time, when new creative ideas sprouted wings, when rivalry between different
approaches to the future reactor’s basic principles and engineering implemen-
1
tation was uncompromising and yet fruitful, and disappointments were fol-
lowed by new flames of hope. (The same atmosphere prevailed 3 decades later,
when high-temperature superconductivity was discovered, and, more recently,
when Dolly the Sheep opened a new cloning era.) Soon it became clear that the
tokamak had become a leading platform for further fusion research. Its leader-
ship was premised on its attractive multifunctional transformer circuit, central
to its design. Reversal of inductor magnetisation solves the main problems of
the tokamak working cycles, such as plasma generation and heating, mainte-
nance of longitudinal current and generation—together with external coils—
of a screw-shaped magnetic field, needed for the plasma confinement. Later,
things turned to be less easy than they seemed at first, but the tokamak-based
development path was given prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s, when it
came to setting priorities.
What is the overall result of the many years of intensive work?
As one can see from Fig. 1, humankind has advanced closely to the sac-
ramental threshold of fusion energy production. A new area of research, the
high-temperature plasma physics, has been formed. Hundreds of test facilities
and devices have been constructed, including more than a dozen of unique ones.
Two of them, the TFTR (USA) and the JET (EU), were the world’s first mag-
netic fusion devices to produce more than 10 MW of power through a stable
nuclear fusion reaction. International cooperation between fusion physicists
and engineers continued even in the tensest periods of the cold war—as did an
intense scientific information exchange.

1. As L.A. Artsimovich grumbled one day, the experimenters kept discovering new plasma instabili-
ties, while the theorists had no time to explain the ‘old’ ones.