Stabilization of the resistive wall mode using a fake rotating shell

摘要

Tokamak plasma performance can, in theory, be greatly improved if the so called resistive wall mode is stabilized. This can be achieved by spinning the plasma rapidly, but such a scheme is not reactor relevant. A more promising approach is to apply external feedback in order to make a resistive shell placed around the plasma act like a perfect conductor. A scheme is outlined by which a network of feedback controlled conductors surrounding the plasma can be made to act like a rotating shell. This fake rotating shell combined with a stationary conventional shell (e.g. the vacuum vessel) can completely stabilize the resistive wall mode. The gain, bandwidth, current, and power requirements of the feedback amplifiers are extremely modest. A previously proposed stabilization scheme (the intelligent shell) is also investigated, and is compared with the fake rotating shell concept. The main disadvantage of the former scheme is that it requires a high gain.