Reactor Implications of Flux Loss Through Conducting Shells Surrounding Compact Toroids

摘要

In several compact toroid reactor designs, close fitting conducting shells are used to provide equilibrium and stability. Strong currents are induced in the inner conducting shell even when the primary confinement is produced by a distant superconducting magnet. Shell resistivity leads to a loss of compressed open field line flux and thus hinders the maintenance of plasma equilibrium. It is shown, however, that the resistive flux decay time is longer than the basic plasma confinement time, and does not limit the reactor design even for small reactors. The ohmic losses associated with this resistive decay are small and are easily balanced by plasma burn and expansion. Some of the flux diffusing through the inner shell is available for direct conversion and thus actually acts to reduce the recirculating power fraction. (ERA citation 05:017220)