National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) power supply real time controller

Author

Neumeyer, C. ; Hatcher, R. ; Marsala, R. ; Ramakrishnan, S.

Author_Institution

Plasma Phys. Lab., Princeton Univ., NJ, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

285

Lastpage

288

Abstract

The NSTX is a new national facility for the study of plasma confinement, heating, and current drive in a low aspect ratio, spherical torus (ST) configuration. The ST configuration is an alternate magnetic confinement concept which is characterized by high β (ratio plasma pressure to magnetic field pressure) and low toroidal field compared to conventional tokamaks, and could provide a pathway to the realization of a practical fusion power source. The NSTX defends on a real time, high speed, synchronous, and deterministic control system acting on a system of thyristor rectifier power supplies to 1) establish the initial magnetic field configuration; 2) initiate plasma within the vacuum vessel; 3) inductively drive plasma current; and 4) control plasma position and shape

Keywords

controllers; fusion reactor design; power supplies to apparatus; power system control; rectifiers; thyristors; NSTX; National Spherical Torus Experiment; deterministic control system; fusion reactors; power supply real time controller; spherical torus; synchronous control system; thyristor rectifier power supplies; Control systems; Heating; Magnetic confinement; Plasma confinement; Plasma sources; Power supplies; Real time systems; Shape control; Tokamaks; Toroidal magnetic fields;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Fusion Engineering, 1999. 18th Symposium on

Conference_Location

Albuquerque, NM

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5829-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FUSION.1999.849838

Filename

849838