General Atomics Tour
General Atomics, as the host of the 20th
IEEE/NPSS Conference, is pleased to invite all participants, including
companions, to take a tour of The DIII-D National Fusion Facility located on
the General Atomics main site. The tour is scheduled for the afternoon of
Friday October 17th, leaving the Bahia Hotel at 1:45 pm and returning at 5:00
pm.
To signup for the tour, please check the appropriate box on the
registration form. You will then be sent a tour registration form on which you will
give the name(s) and nationality (that is, country of citizenship) of the
people in your party that wish to attend the tour.
Below is some information on the mission and
goals of the DIII-D National Fusion
Facility, more information can be obtained on
the DIII-D website http://fusion.gat.com/
The mission of the U.S. Fusion Program is: To
advance plasma science, fusion science, and fusion technology - the knowledge
base for an economically and environmentally attractive energy source for the
nation and the world. Within this context, the DIII-D program mission is to
advance fusion energy science understanding and predictive capability and
improve the tokamak concept.
Over the past three decades, the General
Atomics' fusion program has been a major contributor to the significant
progress in developing innovative fusion concepts, increasing understanding and
predictability of reactor plasma regimes, extending plasma
parameters to power plant conditions, advancing
fusion technology, and refining
magnetic fusion power plant concepts. Today,
DIII-D continues to develop advanced
tokamak concepts such as improved confinement
regimes (VH-mode, high inductance H-mode, second stable core, and high poloidal
beta) with high percentage bootstrap current, steady-state operation and
innovative divertor concepts. The machine has been instrumental in
understanding the effect of plasma shaping on plasma stability and confinement.
The shape flexibility is due to the many shaping coils with independent current
control and the state-of-the-art control system. This allows the study of a
wide range of cross sections including diverted, highly triangular, bean shaped
as well as elliptical and circular plasmas.
The DIII-D facility is being continuously
improved to provide the capabilities to address
current research issues. The most recent
activities focus on divertor development and
advanced tokamak (AT) operating modes. Current
profile control and a new divertor will
open the way for significantly improved plasma
confinement and stability. ECH
microwave power is being added for off-axis
current drive and for localized power input.
The installation of the new divertor is aimed at
controlling particles in high-triangularity
advanced tokamak plasma shapes as well as
dispersing peak divertor heat loads and
reducing the divertor plasma temperature. This
work is focused on developing a concept
that can be applied to ITER.