EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION OF TOKAMAK FUELING BY COMPACT TOROID INJECTION

The most promising concept for deep fuelling a reactor is by the injec tion of compact toroid (CT) plasmoids. The first results showing CT fu elling of a tokamak plasma, without any adverse perturbation to the to kamak discharge, are reported. The Compact Toroid Fueller (CTF) device was used to inject a CT-spheromak plasmoid into the TdeV tokamak. Fol lowing the CT penetration, the tokamak particle inventory increased by 16%, the loop voltage and the plasma current did not change, and ther e was no increase in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity The number of injected impurities was low and dominated by non-metallic elements. Th e plasma diamagnetic energy and the energy confinement time increased by more than 35%.