Study of fast magnetosonic wave and neutral beam heating of large tokamaks. Topical report

Studies of wave and neutral beam heating of tokamak plasma are presented. The leading wave heating candidates include low frequency Alfven waves, fast magnetosonic waves, lower hybrid waves, and electron cyclotron waves and these are briefly surveyed. A more detailed consideration is given to the fast magnetosonic wave and its use in heating a tokamak reactor to ignition. A conceptual magnetosonic wave launching system compatible with reactor plasmas is also described. The status of neutral beam heating, the requirements on injection energies, and the resulting heating profiles for reactor plasmas are described. Finally, a comparison of RF (radiofrequency) and neutral beam heating is presented. It is concluded that a high priority should be given to definitive high power RF tokamak heating experiments to clarify the physics base. A large effort on high energy neutral beam source development as is currently underway is also required