Samenvatting
Nuclear fusion could offer clean, abundant energy. However, managing the power exhausted from the core fusion plasma towards the reactor wall remains a major challenge. This is compounded in emerging compact reactor designs promising more cost-effective pathways towards commercial fusion energy. Alternative Divertor Configurations (ADCs) are a potential solution. In this work, we demonstrate exhaust control in ADCs, employing a novel method to diagnose the neutral gas buffer, which shields the target. Our work on the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak Upgrade shows that ADCs tackle key risks and uncertainties for fusion energy. Their highly reduced sensitivity to perturbations enables active exhaust control in otherwise unfeasible situations and facilitates an increased passive absorption of transients, which would otherwise damage the divertor. We observe a strong decoupling of each divertor from other reactor regions, enabling near-independent control of the divertors and core plasma. Our work showcases the real-world benefits of ADCs for effective heat load management in fusion power reactors.
| Originele taal-2 | Engels |
|---|---|
| Pagina's (van-tot) | 1116-1131 |
| Aantal pagina's | 16 |
| Tijdschrift | Nature Energy |
| Volume | 10 |
| Nummer van het tijdschrift | 9 |
| Vroegere onlinedatum | 5 sep. 2025 |
| DOI's | |
| Status | Gepubliceerd - sep. 2025 |
Financiering
We thank C. Theiler for his foundational contributions to the development of alternative divertors under EUROfusion. We are grateful to R. Osawa for providing the SOLPS simulation of the STEP divertor. The contribution of R. Doyle in supporting operation of the MWI diagnostic is kindly acknowledged. DIFFER is part of the institutes organization of NWO. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium, funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Programme (grant agreement number 101052200 - EUROfusion) (B.K., K.V., G.L.D., T.A.W., J.T.W.K., N.L., G.M., C.V., S.S.H., D.B., H.R., N.O., M.B, The EUROfusion tokamak exploitation team, the MAST-U team) and from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (grant numbers EP/W006839/1, EP/T012250/1, EP/N023846/1 (K.V., G.M., C.V., S.S.H., the MAST-U team) and EP/S022430/1 (N.L., N.O., F.F.)). The Swiss contribution to this work has been funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) (H.R.). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, or the European Commission or SERI. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission nor SERI can be held responsible for them. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy under grant number DE-AC05-00OR22725 (J.L., F.F.).