Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Point out news stories, on the net or in mainstream media, related to polywell fusion.

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Skipjack
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Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

Tri Alpha recently published a couple of papers. The first one is dealing with the simulation of FRCs.
The second one is more recent and is dealing with experiments regarding "Rigid Rotor Field Reversed Configuration".
Unfortunately I can only access the abstract, the rest is behind a pay wall.
http://absimage.aps.org/image/DPP13/MWS ... 001268.pdf
The measured proles agree with the 1-D RR model predictions, supporting the validity of this model as a basis for describing this specific start-up configuration for the FRC.
Sounds like their model is being confirmed in experiments, which I presume is a good thing.

DeltaV
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by DeltaV »

Blurp - a contraction of "blurb" and "burp".

Skipjack
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

DeltaV wrote:Blurp - a contraction of "blurb" and "burp".
Well, it really is more of a hiccup ;)

Skipjack
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

Tri Alpha better hurry up! Rostoker is 88 now! Small article about his successor, like so many, he is not American.
http://ps.uci.edu/news/8394

Skipjack
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

Seems like Michael Binderbauer of Tri Alpha will be presenting at the 56th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
October 27-31, 2014 • New Orleans, Louisiana. Is anyone going?
http://www.aps.org/units/dpp/meetings/a ... nvited.cfm

crowberry
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by crowberry »

The abstracts of the meeting are now available http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP14/Content/2782.
Tri Alpha Energy has 22 abstracts this year. The general overview of TAE is described by this abstract:
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP14/Session/UP8.2
Overview of the C-2 Field-Reversed Configuration Experimental Program and Future Plan on C-2 Upgrade

C-2 is the world's largest compact-toroid (CT) device at Tri Alpha Energy that produces field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas by colliding/merging oppositely-directed CTs and seeks to study the evolution, heating and sustainment effects of neutral-beam (NB) injection into FRCs [1, 2]. Recently, significant progress has been made in C-2 on both technology and physics fronts, achieving ∼ 5 ms stable plasmas with a dramatic improvement in confinement. FRCs are stabilized with an edge biasing using end-on plasma-guns and/or electrodes, and are partially sustained with NB injection (20 keV Hydrogen, ∼ 4 MW). Recent work to reduce scrape-off layer and radiative losses has succeeded in reducing the average power balance deficit to ∼ 1.5 MW. Increasing plasma pressure and electron temperature are now observed during brief periods of the discharge, which indicate a sign of NB injection effect such as accumulating fast-ions as well as heating core/edge plasmas. Highlights of these advances, broader C-2 experimental program, and future plan on upgrading the C-2 device with new NBs (15 keV, up to 10 MW injection power, selectable beam injection angle) will be presented. \\[4pt] [1] M.W. Binderbauer \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 045003 (2010).\\[0pt] [2] M. Tuszewski \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{108}, 255008 (2012).

Solo
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Solo »

I'll be there. They've evidently made some gains in the lifetime of the FRC, but it's still dying quickly due to rapid losses, despite the large amount of injected neutral beam power. They plan to add more, but I am skeptical of how much it will buy them in performance. They are beginning to characterize the plasma in more detail with better diagnostics, and I expect they will start to discover they are plagued by anomalous transport, just as every other plasma device has been, and likely will be. The question then becomes, how bad is it, and what can be done to mitigate it. They are progressing through the stages quite rapidly though, thanks to all the previous understanding, tools, and so forth that tokamak research have produced. That, and the cash flow / pressure to meet milestones.

crowberry
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by crowberry »

Solo wrote:I'll be there. They've evidently made some gains in the lifetime of the FRC, but it's still dying quickly due to rapid losses, despite the large amount of injected neutral beam power. They plan to add more, but I am skeptical of how much it will buy them in performance. They are beginning to characterize the plasma in more detail with better diagnostics, and I expect they will start to discover they are plagued by anomalous transport, just as every other plasma device has been, and likely will be. The question then becomes, how bad is it, and what can be done to mitigate it. They are progressing through the stages quite rapidly though, thanks to all the previous understanding, tools, and so forth that tokamak research have produced. That, and the cash flow / pressure to meet milestones.
It would be nice Solo, if you could report about the TAE plans here after the meeting. :) What TAE is trying to accomplish looks rather difficult compared to what the others are doing. Running in pulsed mode avoids a lot of the instability issues with trying to create a long lived plasma. On the other hand they have a lot of good manpower and resources.

There is another interesting abstract by TAE giving an overview of their progress. They have submitted a paper to Nature Communications, so if it is accepted for publication, then it could be rather interesting to read.
Abstract: VI2.00001 : High Performance Field Reversed Configurations

3:00 PM–3:30 PM

Author:

Michl Binderbauer
(Tri Alpha Energy, Inc.)

The field-reversed configuration (FRC) is a prolate compact toroid with poloidal magnetic fields [1]. FRCs could lead to economic fusion reactors with high power density, simple geometry, natural divertor, ease of translation, and possibly capable of burning aneutronic fuels. However, as in other high-beta plasmas, there are stability and confinement concerns. These concerns can be addressed by introducing and maintaining a significant fast ion population in the system. This is the approach adopted by TAE and implemented for the first time in the C-2 device. Studying the physics of FRCs driven by Neutral Beam (NB) injection, significant improvements were made in confinement and stability. Early C-2 discharges [2] had relatively good confinement, but global power losses exceeded the available NB input power. The addition of axially streaming plasma guns, magnetic end plugs as well as advanced surface conditioning leads to dramatic reductions in turbulence driven losses and greatly improved stability [3]. As a result, fast ion confinement significantly improved and allowed for build-up of a dominant fast particle population. Under such appropriate conditions we achieved highly reproducible, long-lived, macroscopically stable FRCs with record lifetimes [4]. This demonstrated many beneficial effects of large orbit particles and their performance impact on FRCs Together these achievements point to the prospect of beam-driven FRCs as a path toward fusion reactors. This presentation will review and expand on key results and present context for their interpretation. \\[4pt] [1] L.C. Steinhauer, Phys. Plasmas \textbf{18}, 070501 (2011).\\[0pt] [2] M.W. Binderbauer, \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 045003 (2010).\\[0pt] [3] M. Tuszewski \textit{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett.\textbf{ 108}, 255008 (2012).\\[0pt] [4] H.Y. Guo, \textit{et al.}, submitted to Nature Communications (2014).
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP14/Session/VI2.1

Skipjack
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

crowberry wrote: What TAE is trying to accomplish looks rather difficult compared to what the others are doing. Running in pulsed mode avoids a lot of the instability issues with trying to create a long lived plasma. On the other hand they have a lot of good manpower and resources.
TAE is not doing a pulsed device, but is aiming for a sort of steady state after they collide the CTs. They use neutral beam injection and other mechanisms to the keep the plasma stable. Helion also collides plasmoids, but is using a purely pulsed approach with magnetic confinement. They do not try to burn PB11, which means that their goal is much easier to reach.

crowberry
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by crowberry »

I wrote maybe in a bit ambiguous way. I do know that TAE is trying to make a continuous device and that will be difficult for them. What I meant is that the others (GF, HE, Sorlox) have an advantage in that they are using pulsed devices.

Skipjack
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Skipjack »

crowberry wrote:I wrote maybe in a bit ambiguous way. I do know that TAE is trying to make a continuous device and that will be difficult for them. What I meant is that the others (GF, HE, Sorlox) have an advantage in that they are using pulsed devices.
Ahhh, makes sense!

crowberry
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by crowberry »

Check out this thread viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5620 for a Tri Alpha Talk by M. Tuszewski.

crowberry
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by crowberry »

Solo wrote:I'll be there. They've evidently made some gains in the lifetime of the FRC, but it's still dying quickly due to rapid losses, despite the large amount of injected neutral beam power. They plan to add more, but I am skeptical of how much it will buy them in performance. They are beginning to characterize the plasma in more detail with better diagnostics, and I expect they will start to discover they are plagued by anomalous transport, just as every other plasma device has been, and likely will be. The question then becomes, how bad is it, and what can be done to mitigate it. They are progressing through the stages quite rapidly though, thanks to all the previous understanding, tools, and so forth that tokamak research have produced. That, and the cash flow / pressure to meet milestones.
Solo, did you have a chance at the previous APS DPP meeting to listen to the TAE overview talk?

Did you hear anything on what the TAE plans are after the C-2U device?

Munchausen
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by Munchausen »


choff
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Re: Small Tri Alpha news blurp

Post by choff »

The machine in the first figure looks a lot like Lockheed Martin's design.
CHoff

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