In this work, the author applied a systematic calibration, validation and application procedure based on the methodology of mathematical modeling to international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) ignition studies. The multi-mode plasma transport model used here includes a linear combination of drift wave branch and ballooning branch instabilities with two a priori uncertain constants to account for anomalous plasma transport in tokamaks. A Bayesian parameter estimation method is used including experimental calibration error/model offsets and error bar rescaling factors to determine the two uncertain constants in the transport model with quantitative confidence level estimates for the calibrated parameters, which gives two saturation levels of instabilities. This method is first tested using a gyroBohm multi-mode transport model with a pair of DIII-D discharge experimental data, and then applied to calibrating a nominal multi-mode transport model against a broad database using twelve discharges from seven different tokamaks. The calibrated transport model is then validated on five discharges from JT-60 with no adjustable constants. The results are in a good agreement with experimental data. Finally, the resulting class of multi-mode tokamak plasma transport models is applied to the transport analysis of the ignition probability in a next generation machine, ITER. A reference simulation of basic ITER engineering design activity (EDA) parameters shows that a self-sustained thermonuclear burn with 1.5 GW output power can be achieved provided that impurity control makes radiative losses sufficiently small at an average plasma density of 1.2 X 102°/m3 with 50 MW auxiliary heating. The ignition probability of ITER for the EDA parameters, can be formally as high as 99.9% in the present context. The same probability for concept design activity (CDA) parameters of ITER, which has smaller size and lower current, is only 62.6%.

This book is devoted to mathematical modeling of tokamak plasma. Since the appearance in 1982 of the first edition (in Russian), a considerable amount of experimental and theoretical material on tokamak research has been accumu lated. The new-generation devices, viz. , TFTR, JET and JT-60 were put into operation. The first experiments on these units have confirmed the correctness of the basic physical concepts underlying their construction. Experiments on plasma heating with the help of neutral beams and high-frequency (HF) waves on previous generation devices made it possible to obtain high-P plasmas. The number of "medium-size" tokamaks in operation has increased. New experi mental results and advances in the theory have led to more complicated and perfected models of high-temperature plasma. Rapid progress in computer hardware and software has played an important role in the further development of mathematical modeling. While preparing the English edition of the book, we have revised the text considerably. Several new models which have undergone significant advance ment in recent years are described. A section devoted to models of RF (radio frequency) current drive has been added to Chap. 2. The reduced magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) equations for high-P plasma are now considered in detail in Chap. 3. Chapter 4 contains the latest results on anomalous thermal conductivity, diffusion coefficient and pinching. Two new sections are added to Chap. 5.

In this monograph the author presents the Canonical Profile Transport Model or CPTM as a rather general mathematical framework to simulate plasma discharges. The description of hot plasmas in a magnetic fusion device is a very challenging task and many plasma properties still lack a physical explanation. One important property is plasma self-organization. It is very well known from experiments that the radial profile of the plasma pressure and temperature remains rather unaffected by changes of the deposited power or plasma density. The attractiveness of the CPTM is that it includes the effect of self-organization in the mathematical model without having to recur to particular physical mechanisms. The CPTM model contains one dimensional transport equations for ion and electron temperatures, plasma density and toroidal rotation velocity. These equations are well established and in fact are essentially a reformulation the laws of energy, particle and momentum conservation. But the expressions for the energy and particle fluxes, including certain critical gradients, are new. These critical gradients can be determined using the concept of canonical profiles for the first time formulated in great detail in the book. This concept represents a totally new approach to the description of transport in plasmas. Mathematically, the canonical profiles are formulated as a variational problem. To describe the temporal evolution of the plasma profiles, the Euler equation defining the canonical profiles is solved together with the transport equations at each time step. The author shows that in this way it is possible to describe very different operational scenarios in tokamaks (L-Mode, H-Mode, Advanced Modes, Radiating Improved Modes etc...), using one unique principle. The author illustrates the application of this principle to the simulation of plasmas on leading tokamak devices in the world (JET, MAST, T-10, DIII-D, ASDEX-U, JT-60U). In all cases the small differences between the calculated profiles for the ion and electron temperatures and the experimental is rather confirm the validity of the CPTM. In addition, the model also describes the temperature and density pedestals in the H-mode and non steady-state regimes with current and density ramp up. The proposed model therefore provides a very useful mathematical tool for the analysis of experimental results and for the prediction of plasma parameters in future experiments.

This monograph on modelling, numerical simulation, and optimal control of equilibrium of the plasma in Tokamak fusion reactors covers new generation designs which have just entered service (JET, TFTR, and JT60), are under construction (TORE Supra), or are projected (INTOR and NET). The first five chapters deal with the stationary problem of axisymmetric equilibrium of the plasma--modelling and numerical simulation, mathematical existence of a solution for a simplified model, and identification and static control of the boundary of the plasma. Two final chapters treat the evolution of equilibrium on the time-scale of thermal diffusion in the plasma, and the stability and dynamic control of displacements of the plasma.

This is a graduate textbook on tokamak physics, designed to provide a basic introduction to plasma equilibrium, particle orbits, transport, and those ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamic instabilities which dominate the behavior of a tokamak discharge, and to develop the mathematical methods necessary for their theoretical analysis.

Because magnetically confined plasmas are generally not found in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, they have been studied extensively with methods of applied kinetic theory. In closed magnetic field line confinement devices such as the tokamak, non-Maxwellian distortions usually occur as a result of auxiliary heating and transport. In magnetic mirror configurations even the intended steady state plasma is far from local thermodynamic equilibrium because of losses along open magnetic field lines. In both of these major fusion devices, kinetic models based on the Boltzmann equation with Fokker-Planck collision terms have been successful in representing plasma behavior. The heating of plasmas by energetic neutral beams or microwaves, the production and thermalization of a-particles in thermonuclear reactor plasmas, the study of runaway electrons in tokamaks, and the performance of two-energy compo nent fusion reactors are some examples of processes in which the solution of kinetic equations is appropriate and, moreover, generally necessary for an understanding of the plasma dynamics. Ultimately, the problem is to solve a nonlinear partial differential equation for the distribution function of each charged plasma species in terms of six phase space variables and time. The dimensionality of the problem may be reduced through imposing certain symmetry conditions. For example, fewer spatial dimensions are needed if either the magnetic field is taken to be uniform or the magnetic field inhomogeneity enters principally through its variation along the direction of the field.