Start-up simulations of the PULSAR pulsed tokamak reactor

Abstract

Start-up conditions are examined for a pulsed tokamak reactor that uses only inductively driven plasma current (and bootstrap current). A zero-dimensional (profile-averaged) model containing plasma power and particle balance equations is used to study several aspects of plasma start-up, including: (1) optimization of the start-up pathway; (2) tradeoffs of auxiliary start-up heating power versus start-up time; (3) volt-second consumption; (4) thermal stability of the operating point; (5) estimates of the divertor heat flux and temperature during the start-up transient; (6) the sensitivity of the available operating space to allowed values of the H confinement factor; and (7) partial-power operations.