[en] This document contains suggestions for a revised CTR Program strategy which should allow us to achieve equivalent goals while operating within the above constraints. The revised program is designed around three major facilities. The first is an upgrading of the present TFTR facility which will provide a demonstration of the generation of tens of megawatts electric equivalent originally envisioned for the 1985 EPR. The second device is the TTAP which will allow the integration and optimization of the plasma physics results obtained from the next generation of plasma physics experiments. The improvement in tokamak reactor operation resulting from this optimization of fusion plasma performance will enable an EPR to be designed which will produce several hundred megawatts of electric power by 1990. This will move the fusion program much closer to its goal of commercial fusion power by the turn of the century. In addition to this function the TTAP will serve as a prototype of the 1990 EPR system, thus making more certain the successful operation of this device. The third element of this revised program is an intense radiation damage facility which will provide the radiation damage information necessary for the EPR and subsequent fusion reactor facilities. The sum total of experience gained from reacting plasma experiments on TFTR, reactor grade plasma optimization and technological prototyping on TTAP, and end of life radiation damage results from the intense neutron facility will solve all of the presently foreseen problems associated with a tokamak fusion power reactor except those associated with the external nuclear systems. These external system problems such as tritium breeding and optimal power recovery can be developed in parallel on the 1990 EPR

[en] This report is a thorough scientific review of the TFTR physics situation. This review was intended to provide a reference point from which to develop future ETM policy toward the Engineering Test Facility (ETF) development program and to define possible modifications to the TFTR program to better support the ETF

[en] The recognition of the need for an intermediate CTR experiment, to be constructed before the first experimental power reactor (EPR) is discussed. This device, called the next step (TNS), is the logical successor of the Technology Test Assembly with Plasma (TTAP) concept. The TNS has derived its basic function from the TTAP; namely, operational testing of EPR-relevant technologies and plasma control techniques. The technical reasons which militate against the possibility of successful EPR construction of 1985 are discussed. The scientific and technological reasons which favor completion before 1985 of a TNS facility which would accomplish many of the purposes of the EPR are described

[en] A PDFD will operate in the 1980's and must provide the plasma and plasma support technology information necessary to warrant design, construction, and operation of succeeding experimental power reactors and then the demonstration plant. The PDFD must be prototypical of economic fusion devices to justify its cost. Therefore, development of the fusion core will be the focus of the PDFD. The physics performance, power production objectives, and characteristics of the PDFD, and their relationship to the research and development needs to achieve them are outlined. The design criteria for a PDFD which satisfied these constraints will be established

[en] A high beta plasma is produced in a plasma producing device of toroidal configuration by ohmic heating and auxiliary heating. The plasma pressure is continuously monitored and used in a control system to program the current in the poloidal field windings. Throughout the heating process, magnetic flux is conserved inside the plasma and the distortion of the flux surfaces drives a current in the plasma. As a consequence, the total current increases and the poloidal field windings are driven with an equal and opposing increasing current. The spatial distribution of the current in the poloidal field windings is determined by the plasma pressure. Plasma equilibrium is maintained thereby, and high temperature, high beta operation results

[en] The criteria and reference design information for the PDFD are examined with respect to the presently planned R and programs, and the major research and development needs are described. Emphasis remains on the fusion core rather than the nuclear shell. Scaling, heating, fueling and other needs are outlined. In the area of technology, magnet systems and tritium handling compatible with PDFD operation are discussed. Presently planned research and development programs will provide the information needed to support the TNS version of the PDFD by 1980

[en] Numerical and analytic studies have shown that plasmas subject to external heating will naturally seek high beta equilibria whose characteristics are determined by flux conservation. These equilibria can be characterized by broad pressure profiles and plasma currents peaked toward the plasma surface. They possess the same q profiles as the low beta equilibria from which the heating commences, and consequently have reasonable stability properties against local MHD modes. These equilibria are naturally noncircular and tend to approximate a D-shape with moderate elongation of roughly one and one-half. The technological requirements for sustaining such equilibria are not extreme. Their confinement characteristics are such that one can contemplate attaining ignition conditions in moderate-size plasmas. The one remaining factor which must be analyzed is the stability of these equilibria to MHD modes. In this regard, there is no reason to suspect difficulty at moderate beta. However, since these equilibria have the capability of attaining arbitrarily high beta as far as the equilibrium of the plasma is concerned, it is important to investigate the limitations imposed on maximum attainable beta by MHD stability theory

[en] This paper will summarize the state of world fusion development in relation to the remaining steps to the achievement of practical fusion power. It will also emphasize the progress that has been made in building the unprecedented level of international collaboration which is so important for insuring rapid progress toward that goal

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