Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

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Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
PPPL.svg
Established1961;63 years ago (1961)
Budget $116 million (2021)
Field of research
 Fusion, Plasma Physics, Quantum Information Sciences, Microelectronics, Sustainability Sciences
Vice president David J. McComas
Director Steven Cowley [1]
Address100 Stellarator Road, Princeton, New Jersey
Location Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, United States
40°20′56″N74°36′08″W / 40.348825°N 74.602183°W / 40.348825; -74.602183
08536
Campus Forrestal Campus
Operating agency
 U.S. Department of Energy
Website www.pppl.gov
Map
USA New Jersey location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in New Jersey

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source. It is known for the development of the stellarator and tokamak designs, along with numerous fundamental advances in plasma physics and the exploration of many other plasma confinement concepts.

Contents

PPPL grew out of the top-secret Cold War project to control thermonuclear reactions, called Project Matterhorn. The focus of this program changed from H-bombs to fusion power in 1951, when Lyman Spitzer developed the stellarator concept and was granted funding from the Atomic Energy Commission to study the concept. This led to a series of machines in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1961, after declassification, Project Matterhorn was renamed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. [2]

PPPL's stellarators proved unable to meet their performance goals. In 1968, Soviet's claims of excellent performance on their tokamaks generated intense scepticism, and to test it, PPPL's Model C stellarator was converted to a tokamak. It verified the Soviet claims, and since that time, PPPL has been a worldwide leader in tokamak theory and design, building a series of record-breaking machines including the Princeton Large Torus, TFTR and many others. Dozens of smaller machines were also built to test particular problems and solutions, including the ATC, NSTX, and LTX.

PPPL is located on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.

History

Formation

In 1950, John Wheeler was setting up a secret H-bomb research lab at Princeton University. Lyman Spitzer, Jr., an avid mountaineer, was aware of this program and suggested the name "Project Matterhorn". [3]

Spitzer, a professor of astronomy, had for many years been involved in the study of very hot rarefied gases in interstellar space. While leaving for a ski trip to Aspen in February 1951, his father called and told him to read the front page of the New York Times . The paper had a story about claims released the day before in Argentina that a relatively unknown German scientist named Ronald Richter had achieved nuclear fusion in his Huemul Project. [4] Spitzer ultimately dismissed these claims, and they were later proven erroneous, but the story got him thinking about fusion. While riding the chairlift at Aspen, he struck upon a new concept to confine a plasma for long periods so it could be heated to fusion temperatures. He called this concept the stellarator.

Later that year he took this design to the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington. As a result of this meeting and a review of the invention by scientists throughout the nation, the stellarator proposal was funded in 1951. As the device would produce high-energy neutrons, which could be used for breeding weapon fuel, the program was classified and carried out as part of Project Matterhorn. Matterhorn ultimately ended its involvement in the bomb field in 1954, becoming entirely devoted to the fusion power field.

In 1958, this magnetic fusion research was declassified following the United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. This generated an influx of graduate students eager to learn the "new" physics, which in turn influenced the lab to concentrate more on basic research. [5]

The early figure-8 stellarators included: Model-A, Model-B, Model-B2, Model-B3. [6] Model-B64 was a square with round corners, and Model-B65 had a racetrack configuration. [6] The last and most powerful stellarator at this time was the "racetrack" Model C (operating from 1961 to 1969). [7]

Tokamak

By the mid-1960s it was clear something was fundamentally wrong with the stellarators, as they leaked fuel at rates far beyond what theory predicted, rates that carried away energy from the plasma that was far beyond what the fusion reactions could ever produce. Spitzer became extremely skeptical that fusion energy was possible and expressed this opinion in very public fashion in 1965 at an international meeting in the UK. At the same meeting, the Soviet delegation announced results about 10 times better than any previous device, which Spitzer dismissed as a measurement error.

At the next meeting in 1968, the Soviets presented considerable data from their devices that showed even greater performance, about 100 times the Bohm diffusion limit. An enormous argument broke out between the AEC and the various labs about whether this was real. When a UK team verified the results in 1969, the AEC suggested PPPL to convert their Model C to a tokamak to test it, as the only lab willing to build one from scratch, Oak Ridge, would need some time to build theirs. Seeing the possibility of being bypassed in the fusion field, PPPL eventually agreed to convert the Model C to what became the Symmetric Tokamak (ST), quickly verifying the approach.

Two small machines followed the ST, exploring ways to heat the plasma, and then the Princeton Large Torus (PLT) to test whether the theory that larger machines would be more stable was true. Starting in 1975, PLT verified these "scaling laws" and then went on to add neutral beam injection from Oak Ridge that resulted in a series of record-setting plasma temperatures, eventually topping out at 78 million kelvins, well beyond what was needed for a practical fusion power system. Its success was major news.

With this string of successes, PPPL had little trouble winning the bid to build an even larger machine, one specifically designed to reach "breakeven" while running on an actual fusion fuel, rather than a test gas. This produced the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, or TFTR, which was completed in 1982. After a lengthy breaking-in period, TFTR began slowly increasing the temperature and density of the fuel, while introducing deuterium gas as the fuel. In April 1986, it demonstrated a combination of density and confinement, the so-called fusion triple product, well beyond what was needed for a practical reactor. In July, it reached a temperature of 200 million kelvins, far beyond what was needed. However, when the system was operated with both of these conditions at the same time, a high enough triple product and temperature, the system became unstable. Three years of effort failed to address these issues, and TFTR never reached its goal. [8] The system continued performing basic studies on these problems until being shut down in 1997. [9] Beginning in 1993, TFTR was the first in the world to use 1:1 mixtures of deuterium–tritium. In 1994 it yielded an unprecedented 10.7 megawatts of fusion power. [9]

Later designs

In 1999, the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), based on the spherical tokamak concept, came online at the PPPL.

Odd-parity heating was demonstrated in the 4 cm radius PFRC-1 experiment in 2006. PFRC-2 has a plasma radius of 8 cm. Studies of electron heating in PFRC-2 reached 500  eV with pulse lengths of 300 ms. [10]

In 2015, PPPL completed an upgrade to NSTX to produce NSTX-U that made it the most powerful experimental fusion facility, or tokamak, of its type in the world. [11]

In 2017, the group received a Phase II NIAC grant along with two NASA STTRs funding the RF subsystem and superconducting coil subsystem. [10]

In 2024, the lab announced MUSE, a new stellarator. MUSE uses rare-earth permanent magnets with a field strength that can exceed 1.2 teslas. The device uses quasiaxisymmetry, a subtype of quasisymmetry. The research team claimed that its use of quasisymmetry was more sophisticated than prior devices. [12] Also in 2024, PPL announced a reinforcement learning model that could forecast tearing mode instabilities up to 300 milliseconds in advance. That is enough time for the plasma controller to adjust operating parameters to prevent the tear and maintain H-mode performance. [13] [14]

Directors

In 1961 Gottlieb became the first director of the renamed Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. [15] [16]

Timeline of major research projects and experiments

Princeton field-reversed configurationLithium Tokamak ExperimentNational Spherical Torus ExperimentTokamak Fusion Test ReactorPrinceton Large TorusModel C stellaratorSteven CowleyRobert J. GoldstonRonald C. DavidsonHarold FürthMelvin B. GottliebLyman SpitzerPrinceton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Other domestic and international research activities

Laboratory scientists are collaborating with researchers on fusion science and technology at other facilities, including DIII-D in San Diego, EAST in China, JET in the United Kingdom, KSTAR in South Korea, the LHD in Japan, the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) device in Germany, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France. [22]

PPPL manages the U.S. ITER project activities together with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Savannah River National Laboratory. The lab delivered 75% of components for the fusion energy experiment's electrical network in 2017 and has been leading the design and construction of six diagnostic tools for analyzing ITER plasmas. The PPPL physicist Richard Hawryluk served as ITER Deputy Director-General from 2011 to 2013. In 2022, PPPL staff developed with researchers from other national labs and universities over several months a US ITER research plan during the joint Fusion Energy Sciences Research Needs Workshop. [23]

Staff are applying knowledge gained in fusion research to a number of theoretical and experimental areas including materials science, solar physics, chemistry, and manufacturing. PPPL also aims to speed the development of fusion energy through the development of an increased number of public-private partnerships. [24] [25] [26]

Plasma science and technology

Theoretical plasma physics

Transportation

Tiger Transit's Route 3 runs to Forrestal Campus and terminates at PPPL.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stellarator</span> Plasma device using external magnets to confine plasma

A stellarator is a device that confines plasma using external magnets. Scientists researching magnetic confinement fusion aim to use stellarator devices as a vessel for nuclear fusion reactions. The name refers to stars as fusion also occurs in stars such as the Sun. It is one of the earliest fusion power devices, along with the z-pinch and magnetic mirror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokamak</span> Magnetic confinement device used to produce thermonuclear fusion power

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joint European Torus</span> Facility in Oxford, United Kingdom

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor</span> Former experimental tokamak at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) was an experimental tokamak built at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) circa 1980 and entering service in 1982. TFTR was designed with the explicit goal of reaching scientific breakeven, the point where the heat being released from the fusion reactions in the plasma is equal or greater than the heating being supplied to the plasma by external devices to warm it up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnetic confinement fusion</span> Approach to controlled thermonuclear fusion using magnetic fields

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spheromak</span>

A spheromak is an arrangement of plasma formed into a toroidal shape similar to a smoke ring. The spheromak contains large internal electric currents and their associated magnetic fields arranged so the magnetohydrodynamic forces within the spheromak are nearly balanced, resulting in long-lived (microsecond) confinement times without external fields. Spheromaks belong to a type of plasma configuration referred to as the compact toroids. A spheromak can be made and sustained using magnetic flux injection, leading to a dynomak.

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The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a magnetic fusion device based on the spherical tokamak concept. It was constructed by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Columbia University, and the University of Washington at Seattle. It entered service in 1999. In 2012 it was shut down as part of an upgrade program and became NSTX-U, for Upgrade.

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The Model C stellarator was the first large-scale stellarator to be built, during the early stages of fusion power research. Planned since 1952, construction began in 1961 at what is today the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The Model C followed the table-top sized Model A, and a series of Model B machines that refined the stellarator concept and provided the basis for the Model C, which intended to reach break-even conditions. Model C ultimately failed to reach this goal, producing electron temperatures of 400 eV when about 100,000 were needed. In 1969, after UK researchers confirmed that the USSR's T-3 tokamak was reaching 1000 eV, the Model C was converted to the Symmetrical Tokamak, and stellarator development at PPPL ended.

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Rajesh Maingi is a physicist known for his expertise in the physics of plasma edges and program leadership in the field of fusion energy. He is currently the head of Tokamak Experimental Sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Nuclear Society and has chaired or co-chaired numerous national and international conferences.

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References

  1. ↑ "10 Questions for Steven Cowley, New Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory | Princeton Plasma Physics Lab". www.pppl.gov.
  2. ↑ Tanner, Earl C. (1977) Project Matterhorn: an informal history Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, p. 77, OCLC   80717532.
  3. ↑ "Timeline". Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
  4. ↑ Burke, James (1999) The Knowledge Web: From Electronic Agents to Stonehenge and Back – And Other Journeys Through Knowledge Simon & Schuster, New York, pp. 241–242, ISBN   0-684-85934-3.
  5. ↑ Bromberg, Joan Lisa (1982) Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 97, ISBN   0-262-02180-3.
  6. 1 2 "Highlights in Early Stellarator Research at Princeton. Stix. 1997" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
  7. ↑ Yoshikawa, S.; Stix, T.H. (1985-09-01). "Experiments on the Model C stellarator". Nuclear Fusion. 25 (9): 1275–1279. doi:10.1088/0029-5515/25/9/047. ISSN   0029-5515.
  8. ↑ Meade 1988, p. 107.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Staff (1996) "Fusion Lab Planning Big Reactor's Last Run", The Record , 22 December 1996, p. N-07.
  10. 1 2 Wang, Brian (June 22, 2019). "Game Changing Direct Drive Fusion Propulsion Progress". NextBigFuture. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  11. ↑ "National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U)". Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.
  12. ↑ Paul, Andrew (2024-04-05). "Stellarator fusion reactor gets new life thanks to a creative magnet workaround". Popular Science. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  13. ↑ "AI can predict and prevent fusion plasma instabilities in milliseconds". www.ans.org. March 4, 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  14. ↑ Seo, Jaemin; Kim, SangKyeun; Jalalvand, Azarakhsh; Conlin, Rory; Rothstein, Andrew; Abbate, Joseph; Erickson, Keith; Wai, Josiah; Shousha, Ricardo; Kolemen, Egemen (2024). "Avoiding fusion plasma tearing instability with deep reinforcement learning". Nature. 626 (8000): 746–751. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07024-9. ISSN   1476-4687.
  15. ↑ Bromberg, Joan Lisa (1982) Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 130, ISBN   0-262-02180-3.
  16. ↑ "History". Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2009-05-12.
  17. ↑ Stern, Robert (2007) "Princeton fusion center to lose influential leader", The Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey, 15 December 2007, p. 20.
  18. ↑ "Press Release, Prager to lead DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory" . Retrieved 2008-08-09.
  19. ↑ "PPPL Director Stewart Prager Steps Down". Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.
  20. ↑ "PPPL has a new interim director and is moving ahead with construction of prototype magnets". Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.
  21. ↑ "Steven Cowley named director of DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory". 2018-05-16. Archived from the original on 2018-05-16.
  22. ↑ "ITER and other Collaborations". www.pppl.gov.
  23. ↑ "Fusion Energy Sciences Research Needs Workshop". www.iterresearch.us.
  24. ↑ "Future entrepreneurs get outside their comfort zone in Energy I-Corps workshop". innovation.princeton.edu.
  25. ↑ "New public-private partnership comes to PPPL through a novel program to speed the development of fusion energy". www.newswise.com.
  26. ↑ "Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Teams Up With Tech Start-Up". www.miragenews.com.
  27. ↑ "Laboratory for Plasma Nanosynthesis (LPN)", Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, accessed 16 May 2018.
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