Next Step Option (NSO)

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Next Step Option (NSO)
Dale Meade US ITER Project/VLT
Meeting Princeton, NJ October 21, 2004
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The Next Step Option (NSO) Activity
The purpose of the Next Step Options activity
is to investigate and assess various
opportunities for advancing the scientific
understanding of fusion energy, with emphasis on
plasma behavior at high energy gain and for long
duration. The Next Step Options (NSO) study has
been organized as a national integrated
physics/engineering design activity within the
Virtual Laboratory for Technology (VLT). The NSO
programs objective is to develop design options
and strategies for burning plasmas in the
restructured fusion sciences program, considering
the international context. Examples of specific
tasks to be pursued include investigation of a
modular program pathway, with initial emphasis on
the burning plasma module. The initial effort
has been focused on a design concept called the
Fusion Ignition Research Experiment (FIRE) that
includes both burning plasma physics and advanced
toroidal physics mission objectives. NSO-PAC
15 members, Chaired by Tony Taylor, 5 meetings,
all reports are on the web at http//fire.pppl.gov
/nso_pac5.html FIRE effort evolved form the
US ITER Design Home Team,and involved gt15
institutions and gt50 individuals. FIRE has
been engaged in a PreConceptual design activity
at a budget of 2M/year with FY04 FY05 0.6
M. The FIRE PreConceptual design was completed in
FY04.
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NSO/FIRE Status
FIRE followed recommendations of Snowmass and
FESAC (BPPS 35 Yr Plan) Developed
Steady-state High-? AT Mode for FIRE Expanded
Operating Range for H-Mode and AT, longer pulse,
faster rep rate AT duration limited by first wall
more than TF in present design PVR March 29-30,
2004 Strong positive recommendations from the
PVR Committee Technically Ready to begin
Conceptual Design Identified areas for more RD
(most in common with ITER) Pre-Conceptual
Design Completed - September 30, 2004 Original
Goals Exceeded Excellent Technology support
from VLT Team Strong Support from the Base
Program (both Technology and Physics) Documentatio
n is on web (needs to organized/indexed)
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Steady-State High-b Advanced Tokamak Discharge
on FIRE
0 1 2
3 4
time,(current redistributions)
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ARIES-like AT Mode Operating Range Greatly
Expanded
Nominal operating point Q 5 Pf 150 MW,
Pf/Vp 5.5 MWm-3 (ARIES) steady-state
4 to 5 tCR Physics basis improving (ITPA)
required confinement H factor and bN
attained transiently C-Mod LHCD experiments
will be very important First Wall is the main
limit Improve cooling revisit FW design
Opportunity for additional improvement.
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NSO/FIRE Status
FIRE followed recommendations of Snowmass and
FESAC (BPPS 35 Yr Plan) Developed
Steady-state High-? AT Mode for FIRE Expanded
Operating Range for H-Mode and AT, longer pulse,
faster rep rate AT duration limited by first wall
more than TF in present design PVR March 29-30,
2004 Strong positive recommendations from the
PVR Committee Technically Ready to begin
Conceptual Design Identified areas for more RD
(most in common with ITER) Pre-Conceptual
Design Completed - September 30, 2004 Original
Goals Exceeded Excellent Technology support
from VLT Team Strong Support from the Base
Program (both Technology and Physics) Documentatio
n is on web (needs to organized/indexed)
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FIRE PVR

• FIRE Physics Validation Review (PVR) was held
  March 30-31 in Germantown.
• The Committee included S. Prager, (Chair) Univ
  of Wisc, Earl Marmar, MIT, N. Sauthoff PPPL, F.
  Najmabadi, UCSD, Jerry Navratil, Columbia (unable
  to attend), John Menard PPPL, R. Boivin GA, P.
   Mioduszewski ORNL, Michael Bell, PPPL, S. Parker
  Univ of Co, C. Petty GA, P. Bonoli MIT, B.
  Breizman Texas,
• PVR Committee Consensus Report
• The FIRE team is on track for completing the
  pre-conceptual design within FY 04. FIRE would
  then be ready to launch the conceptual design.
  The product of the FIRE work, and their
  contributions to and leadership within the
  overall burning plasma effort, is stellar.
• Is the proposed physical device sufficiently
  capable and flexible to answer the critical
  burning plasma science issues proposed above?
• The 2002 Snowmass study also provided a strong
  affirmative answer to this question. Since the
  Snowmass meeting the evolution of the FIRE design
  has only strengthened ability of FIRE to
  contribute to burning plasma science.

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FIRE PVR (2)

• The panel identified FIRE-specific areas that
  can benefit from further pre-conceptual design
  work including alpha driven instabilities,
  generic port plug design, more modeling of
  particle exhaust, ngt1 resistive wall modes and
  neoclassical modes.
• The panel also identified generic burning plasma
  areas that can benefit from further work
  investigation of the suppression of neoclassical
  tearing modes (NTM) by RF current drive,
  development of modified and new diagnostics for
  burning plasma research, development of an
  integrated simulation capability applicable to
  burning plasmas, investigation of effects of ELMs
  on tungsten divertor components and systematic
  antenna development. Possible elements in a US
  burning plasma program.
• Nearly all these items are also on the ITER task
  list.

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NSO/FIRE Status
FIRE followed recommendations of Snowmass and
FESAC (BPPS 35 Yr Plan) Developed
Steady-state High-? AT Mode for FIRE Expanded
Operating Range for H-Mode and AT, longer pulse,
faster rep rate AT duration limited by first wall
more than TF in present design PVR March 29-30,
2004 Strong positive recommendations from the
PVR Committee Technically Ready to begin
Conceptual Design Identified areas for more RD
(most in common with ITER) Pre-Conceptual
Design Completed - September 30, 2004 Original
Goals Exceeded Excellent Technology support
from VLT Team Strong Support from the Base
Program (both Technology and Physics) Documentatio
n is on web (needs to organized/indexed)
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Issues and Recommended Approach
Uncertainty of ITER Construction Decision (This
is no surprise) Follow FESAC recommendations Su
pport the ITER process, more aggressive outreach
is needed to get greater community involvement
in ITER. Stay on track, and Hold our FIRE as
per FESAC/NRC NSO was chartered for this
situation Proposed Option extend performance of
ITER using Advanced Tokamak operation Fully
exploit the capability of ITER (increase power to
1GW at steady-state) Would address several
physics tasks requested by IT Leader Coincident
with US program emphasis on advanced physics and
technology Aligns with FIRE mission if ITER
does not go forward
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Physics Tasks Requested by the International
Team LeaderUS ITER Project Status _at_ TOFE ,
9/04

• Magnets and PFCs (power and particle-handling,
  including tritium inventory)
• How disruptions/VDEs which may affect the ITER
  design.
• Characterization of thermal energy load during
  disruption
• Model development of halo current width during
  VDEs based on experiments
• Simulations of VDEs in ITER with 3D MHD code
• Disruption mitigation by noble gas injection
• Oxygen baking experiment, which could be possible
  during spring 2005 at D III-D and is under
  discussion at GA, may be one of the possible
  tasks.
• Heating and Current-drive and advanced control
• ITER Plasma Integrated Model for ITER for Control
• Feasibility study of ITER SS scenarios with high
  confinement, NBCD, ECCD, LHCD, ICCD and fueling
  by pellet injection.
• RF launchers
• Validation of enhanced confinement models and
  application to ITER.
• Development of Steady State Scenarios in ITER
• RWM in Steady State Scenario in ITER
• Evaluation of Fast Particle Confinement of ITER
• Diagnostics
• Specific diagnostic design tasks, including
  updating procurement packagesactivities related
  to the diagnostics for which the US is
  responsible

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FY05 Plans Highlighting ITER Support
Develop higher performance steady-state AT mode
for ITER (NINBCD, FWCD,LHCD) Initial results to
be presented at IAEA and ITPA ?N 3.3, fbs 50
with 100 non-inductive drive (NINB, LHCD,
bootstrap) LH for off-axis CD can put qmin at
r/a 0.8, compare with ECCD Lots of opportunity
for improvement!! Optimize NIND, ICFW,
ECCD and LHCD mix and plasma startup(ITPA) Evaluat
e RWM feedback stabilization requirements and
integrate with first wall Initial results from
Columbia (VALEN, DIII-D) look promising
stable up to ?N 3.7, for coils inside VV,
integrated with shield modules Key issue is the
technical feasibility of coils near the plasma
Interest expressed by G. Janeshitz in RWM in
port plug first wall Resources for design of
integrated first wall and coil are already over
committed.
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IAEA Paper FT/P7-23
First Results from ITER-AT Studies Using
TSC,TRANSP and NOVA-K
Goal is Steady-State, bN 3.5, fbs gt 60 fbs , Q
gt 5 using NINB, ICFW and LHCD
This case has bN 3.3, fbs 44, 100
non-inductive and Q 5.
Invited to join ITPA Integrated Modeling paper at
IAEA and Nuclear Fusion.
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FY05 Plans Highlighting ITER Support
Develop higher performance steady-state AT mode
for ITER (NINBCD, FWCD,LHCD) Initial results to
be presented at IAEA and ITPA ?N 3.3, fbs 50
with 100 non-inductive drive (NINB, LHCD,
bootstrap) LH for off-axis CD can put qmin at
r/a 0.8, compare with ECCD Lots of opportunity
for improvement!! Optimize NIND, ICFW,
ECCD and LHCD mix and plasma startup(ITPA) Evaluat
e RWM feedback stabilization requirements and
integrate with first wall Initial results from
Columbia (VALEN, DIII-D) look promising
stable up to ?N 3.7, for coils inside VV,
integrated with shield modules Key issue is the
technical feasibility of coils near the plasma
Interest expressed by G. Janeshitz in RWM in
port plug first wall Resources for design of
integrated first wall and coil are already over
committed.
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IAEA Paper FT/P7-23
Applying FIRE-Like RWM Coils to ITER Increases
b-limit from bN 2.5 to 3.7
VALEN Analysis- Columbia
ITER
RWM coils located outside TF coils
Engineering feasibility needs to be determined G.
Janeschitz has expressed interest in RWM coils
integrated with first wall
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FY05 Plans Highlighting ITER Support(2)
Coordinate with PFC and TBM activities on design
issues for higher power densities if AT
scenario yields extended performance (1,000
MW), ITER will need a first wall capable of
higher power ( 1MWm-2) recovering
performance approaching the original ITER is the
ultimate goal More Proactive Outreach for ITER
and Burning Plasma Program US ITER Project Info
on web at http//fire.pppl.gov/iter_us_news.html
Two Symposia at AAAS Annual Meeting (Feb 2005)
in Washington, DC on Energy and Fusion (Talk
on ITER-NRS) KPS-DP Special Lecture on Burning
Plasmas Community Workshop next Spring on
Burning Plasma Activities
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(No Transcript)
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Concluding Remarks
FIRE Pre-Conceptual Design has been completed -
exceeding original goals. Special thanks and a
debt of gratitude to the VLT/FIRE team members
for their stellar work on/under FIRE.
Maintain FIRE at a holding position to be put
forward as an attractive burning plasma
experiment if the ITER negotiations remain
deadlocked. Transition of NSO activities to
supporting the option of extending ITER
performance using AT operation has been
accomplished without missing a step. The goal is
to recover most of the capability of the larger
ITER. Already some progress. Need to stay the
course with community strategy as events
unfold. We must expand the fusion outreach
activities in any eventuality.