Introduction
NORTH is a small, spherical tokamak device installed at DTU during the fall 2018 with first plasma in the March 2019. The NORTH tokamak project is a collaboration between DTU and the British company Tokamak Energy who constructed the device in Oxfordshire. The device is the first tokamak at DTU and will contribute to the understanding of plasma dynamics in an effort to harvest the clean energy of fusion power.
Spherical Tokamaks
A spherical tokamak is a more compact version of the tokamak designs originally developed in the former Soviet Union. Tokamaks can confine plasma with temperatures above 200.000.000 C, which is 10 times the temperature in the centre of the Sun. The warm plasma is confined using advanced magnetic fields and the high temperatures are achieved by heating with electromagnetic waves and neutral beam injection.
Technical Specifications of NORTH
The NORTH tokamak is a small-scale tokamak with a major radius of 25 cm and a central magnetic field up to 0.3 T. The plasma is heated using two 3 kW magnetrons operating at 2.45 GHz. The goal is to equip the device with plasma diagnostics in order to measure density, temperature and general wave propagation. Another aim is to involve the students at DTU in the construction of plasma diagnostics and to assist in the operation of the device.
First Results
An overview of the first results from NORTH can be found here.
The device is presently located at DTU (Kgs. Lyngby), building 309.