On friday 2nd of September, the P41 visited the Research centre of Jülich.
Aside from the supercomputer JUGENE, which consists of 300.000 processors, special attention went to the Fusion Energy Research Project. There is a Tokamak on site. Tokamak is the Rusian acronym for “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils” and it is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus (doughnut). Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape. Such a helical field can be generated by adding a toroidal field (traveling around the torus in circles) and a poloidal field (traveling in circles orthogonal to the toroidal field). In a tokamak, the toroidal field is produced by electromagnets that surround the torus, and the poloidal field is the result of a toroidal electric current that flows inside the plasma. This current is induced inside the plasma with a second set of electromagnets.
The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices, and is one of the most-researched candidates for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. Magnetic fields are used for confinement since no solid material could withstand the extremely high temperature of the plasma. In Jülich they perform tests at 200 million degrees Celsius!
P41 will now see how they can assist in overcoming the current remaining challenges to make this technology viable.
