Progress development of a numerical tokamak

The development of highly concurrent computers is causing a revolution in numerical modeling. One can now anticipate a time when constraints on computational power are removed. That anticipation motivates the identification of grand challenge problems, those problems which combine significance and generality, and benefit from enormous computing power. Magnetic confinement fusion faces a grand challenge problem that will stimulate the energy and creativity of the entire community of computational physicists. That challenge is the developmental of a numerical model for a Tokamak. The successful modeling of a Tokamak would lead to a better understanding of the operation of these machines. As John Dawson comments, it would give much greater confidence in the predicted machine performance; it would provide the capability to test out their new ideas and machine improvements without committing them to hardware, and it would be a powerful tool for machine builders. Since success with the Tokamak is the principal hope for magnetic fusion in the foreseeable future, real contributions from numerical modeling would be invaluable. There is agreement on certain essential components of Tokamak physics. The modeling of Tokamaks requires the means to represent complex geometries, long-range interaction of charged particles through electric and magnetic fields, non-equilibrium, plasma phenomena, and the nonlinear interaction of many complex and dissimilar processes. It is clear that no one method can encompass all of the physics of a Tokamak. However, because of the range of plasma conditions encountered in a tokamak, there is reason to believe that plasma simulation using the full kinetic equations has the greatest chance of achieving this goal