Novel concept suppressing plasma heat pulses in a tokamak by fast divertor sweeping.

One of the remaining challenges in magnetic thermonuclear fusion is survival of the heat shield protecting the tokamak reactor vessel against excessive plasma heat fluxes. Unmitigated high confinement edge localized mode (ELM) is a regular heat pulse damaging the heat shield. We suggest a novel concept of magnetic sweeping of the plasma contact strike point fast and far enough in order to spread this heat pulse.

Magnetized plasma implosion in a snail target driven by a moderate-intensity laser pulse.

Optical generation of compact magnetized plasma structures is studied in the moderate intensity domain. A sub-ns laser beam irradiated snail-shaped targets with the intensity of about 10 W/cm. With a neat optical diagnostics, a sub-megagauss magnetized plasmoid is traced inside the target.

Measurement of the target current by inductive probe during laser interaction on terawatt laser system PALS.

Measurements of the return-current flowing through a solid target irradiated with the sub-nanosecond kJ-class Prague Asterix Laser System is reported. A new inductive target probe was developed which allows us measuring the target current derivative in a kA/ns range. The dependences of the target current on the laser pulse energy for cooper, graphite, and polyethylene targets are reported.

Efficient neutron production from a novel configuration of deuterium gas-puff z-pinch.

A novel configuration of a deuterium z pinch has been used to generate fusion neutrons. Injecting an outer hollow cylindrical plasma shell around an inner deuterium gas puff, neutron yields from DD reactions reached Y(n)=(2.9 ± 0.