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You are here: Experts > Science > Physics > Astrophysics > Tokamak
Expert: Steve Nelson - 10/21/2009
Question
I am deeply interested in nuclear fusion. I have read, that in Tokamak systems the D-T plasma fuel confined with magnetic field becomes instable at the temperature and compression necessary to the ignition of the fusion. My question would be, is it possible to supplement the magnetic confinement with X-ray radiation pressure applied symmetrically onto the magnetically compressed plasma thread in the torus? The radiation could be obtained from high power (100kW - 1MW) laser beams, converted into soft X-ray radiation. It is true, here does not help the ablation effect, like in the H-bomb. Anyhow, it would be interesting to know...
Answer
Tokamak systems are huge. The sheer level of x-rays you're talking about would require ridiculously high x-ray radiation spread over a very large ring of compressed plasma. It's not that the plasma exists in some small point like it does in laser-ignition fusion where you're already slamming it with photopower, and you'd have to have enough x-ray energy to be comparable to the plasma energy. It's just not possible to stabilize a Tokamak type reactor's plasma in this way. It's possible that the ITER (international fusion project in France) project will be precisely machined enough to overcome the plasma instabilities and achieve breakeven fusion output power. Precision machining, while expensive, is the preferable way to solve this problem.
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