PPPL physicists simulate innovative method for starting up tokamaks without using a solenoid (Nuclear Fusion)

Posted on by Catherine Zandonella
Francesca Poli
PPPL Scientist Francesca Poli. Photo Credit: Elle Starkman / PPPL Office of Communications. PPPL, located on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus and managed by the University, is devoted to developing practical solutions for the creation of sustainable energy from fusion and to creating new knowledge about the physics of ultra-hot, charged gases known as plasmas.

By Raphael Rosen, PPPL Office of Communications

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have produced self-consistent computer simulations that capture the evolution of an electric current inside fusion plasma without using a central electromagnet, or solenoid.

The computer simulations of the process, known as non-inductive current ramp-up, were performed using TRANSP, the gold-standard code developed at PPPL. The results were published in October 2015 in the journal Nuclear Fusion. The research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

In traditional donut-shaped tokamaks, a large solenoid runs down the center of the reactor. By varying the electrical current in the solenoid scientists induce a current in the plasma. This current starts up the plasma and creates a second magnetic field that completes the forces that hold the hot, charged gas together.

But spherical tokamaks, a compact variety of fusion reactor that produces high plasma pressure with relatively low magnetic fields, have little room for solenoids. Spherical tokamaks look like cored apples and have a smaller central hole for the solenoid than conventional tokamaks do. Physicists, therefore, have been trying to find alternative methods for producing the current that starts the plasma and completes the magnetic field in spherical tokamaks.

One such method is known as coaxial helicity injection (CHI). During CHI, researchers switch on an electric coil that runs beneath the tokamak. Above this coil is a gap that opens into the tokamak’s vacuum vessel and circles the tokamak’s floor. The switched-on electrical current produces a magnetic field that connects metal plates on either side of the gap.

Researchers next puff gas through the gap and discharge a spark across the two plates. This process causes magnetic reconnection — the process by which the magnetic fields snap apart and reconnect. This reconnection creates a magnetic bubble that fills the tokamak and produces the vital electric current that starts up the plasma and completes the magnetic field.

This current must be nurtured and fed. According to lead author Francesca Poli, the new computer simulations show that the current can best be sustained by injecting high-harmonic radio-frequency waves (HHFWs) and neutral beams into the plasma.

HHFW’s are radio-frequency waves that can heat both electrons and ions. The neutral beams, which consist of streams of hydrogen atoms, become charged when they enter the plasma and interact with the ions. The combination of the HHFWs and neutral beams increases the current from 300 kiloamps to 1 mega amp.

But neither HHFWs nor neutral beams can be used at the start of the process, when the plasma is relatively cool and not very dense. Poli found that HHFWs would be more effective if the plasma were first heated by electron cyclotron waves, which transfer energy to the electrons that circle the magnetic field lines.

“With no electron cyclotron waves you would have to pump in four megawatts of HHFW power to create 400 kiloamps of current,” she said. “With these waves you can get the same amount of current by pumping in only one megawatt of power.

“All of this is important because it’s hard to control the plasma at the start-up,” she added. “So the faster you can control the plasma, the better.”

PPPL is managed by Princeton University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

Read the abstract.

F.M. Poli, R.G. Andre, N. Bertelli, S.P. Gerhardt, D. Mueller and G. Taylor. “Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade.” Nuclear Fusion. Published October 30, 2015. DOI: 10.1088/0029-5515/55/12/123011

Computational clues into the structure of a promising energy conversion catalyst (J. Physical Chemistry Letters)

Posted on by Catherine Zandonella
Mosaic structure
Representation of the mosaic texture of β-NiOOH and its possible structures.

By Tien Nguyen, Department of Chemistry

Hydrogen fuel is a promising source of clean energy that can be produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas with the help of a catalyst, a material that can speed up the process. Although most known catalysts are inefficient, one called iron-doped nickel oxide is promising but not well understood.

Now researchers at Princeton University have reported new insights into the structure of an active component of the nickel oxide catalyst, known as β-NiOOH, using theoretical calculations. Led by Annabella Selloni, professor of chemistry at Princeton, the findings were published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on October 28.

“Understanding the structure is the basis for any further study of the material’s properties. If you don’t know the material’s structure you can’t know what it’s doing,” Selloni said. Nickel oxide’s exact structure has been difficult to determine experimentally because it is constantly changing during the reaction.

The research team took a theoretical approach and employed a “genetic algorithm” to search for the structure. Genetic algorithms operate under a set of parameters that draw inspiration from evolution by creating generation after generation of structures to arrive at the most “fit” or most likely candidates.

Taking the results of the genetic algorithm search in combination with computational techniques known as hybrid density functional theory calculations—which estimate a molecule’s electronic structure—co-author Ye-Fei Li, a former postdoctoral researcher at Princeton who is now at Fudan University, and Selloni were able to identify structures of nickel oxide that supported existing observations.

One such observation is the material’s mosaic texture, composed of tiny grain-like microstructures. The researchers propose that these microstructures are stable tunnel structures that relieve stress between layers. Another observed feature is the doubling of the distance between layers made of the same material, referred to as its c axis periodicity, which represents the alternating layers of Ni(OH)2 and NiO2 formed during the reaction.

Armed with a better understanding of the material’s structure, the scientists hope to further map out its activity in the reaction. “I’m interested in the microscopic mechanisms, what are the electrons and atoms doing?” Selloni said.

Read the abstract

Li, Ye-Fei and Annabella Selloni. “Mosaic Texture and Double c-Axis Periodicity of β–NiOOH: Insights from First-Principles and Genetic Algorithm Calculations.” J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 3981.

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences under award DE-FG0212ER16286.