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A three-barrel pellet injector developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the ITER disruption mitigation system.

Mitigating plasma disruptions in ITER: Using large cryogenic pellets, US ITER advances new fusion technology

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The international ITER fusion project is building “a sun on earth” that will produce a self-heated, burning plasma—a key step toward industrial-scale fusion energy production. Controlling that plasma can be tricky, though, because disruptions may occur that cool and collapse the plasma. Sudden losses of plasma energy and current have the potential to erode plasma-facing […]

The 800-meter sample toroidal field conductor was transferred to a container ship at the port of Charleston, S.C., on May 28, 2014 for its voyage to La Spezia, Italy.

US ITER ships 30,000 pounds of magnet system hardware to Europe

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An 800-meter length of sample toroidal field conductor is en route to La Spezia, Italy ―Lynne Degitz  ITER is a unique international scientific partnership that aims to demonstrate industrial-scale fusion power in the world’s largest experimental tokamak. An unusual aspect of the project is the often long and intricate journey some hardware components take from […]

General Atomics in San Diego, Calif., is overseeing the fabrication of the central solenoid, including the development of specialized tooling stations. This de-spooling tool—being developed by Tauring in Torino, Italy—will become part of the part of the conductor winding station at GA. Photo: General Atomics

Building the heartbeat of ITER

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To initiate and maintain plasma current, the international ITER fusion reactor requires a giant solenoid—which will be the largest pulsed electromagnet ever built. The 1,000 metric ton solenoid located in the center of the ITER tokamak will have 5.5 gigajoules of stored energy and be about 18 meters, or 60 feet, tall.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed pellet injector is installed on the DIII-D tokamak for fueling and plasma edge control experiments.

US ITER high-performance pellet injection system advances to next stage

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Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a continuous extruder for fusion fuel and are advancing state-of-the-art fueling and plasma control for the ITER international fusion reactor now under construction in France. US ITER is managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. Reliable, high-speed continuous fueling is essential for ITER […]

Drain tank heads, shown in fabrication at ODOM Industries in Milford Ohio, will be assembled at Joseph Oat Corporation in Camden, New Jersey.

US fabrication of early delivery components for ITER advances

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―Katie Elyce Jones  Drain tank fabrication for ITER’s tokamak cooling water system is progressing steadily under the leadership of US ITER, which is managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. The drain tanks will be among first major hardware items shipped to the ITER site, now under construction in France. […]

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Russ Feder (left) and Dave Johnson developed key features for a modular approach to housing the extensive diagnostic systems that will be installed on the ITER tokamak. Photo: PPPL

Solutions developed for housing ITER diagnostics

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When the ITER experimental fusion reactor begins operation in the 2020s, over 40 diagnostic tools will provide essential data to researchers seeking to understand plasma behavior and optimize fusion performance. But before the ITER tokamak is built, researchers need to determine an efficient way of fitting all of these tools into a limited number of […]

Thermal quench (TQ) and current quench (CQ) studies are part of the research underway on disruption mitigation and runaway electron suppression.

Disruption mitigation researchers investigate design options

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ITER, the world’s first reactor-scale fusion machine, will have a plasma volume more than 10 times that of the next largest tokamak, JET. Plasma disruptions that can occur in a tokamak when the plasma becomes unstable can potentially damage plasma-facing surfaces of the machine. To lessen the impact of high energy plasma disruptions, US ITER […]

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