Lesson 02 of 612 min

Construction and Working Principle of Tokamaks

The tokamak uses a toroidal magnetic cage to isolate hot plasma from vessel walls. Thermonuclear fusion can be ignited inside after reaching suitable conditions. More than 50 tokamaks are involved in fusion research today.

The tokamak is currently perhaps the most promising route to mastering thermonuclear fusion. It uses a special magnetic cage in the shape of a torus, which can safely isolate the plasma from the walls of the vessel and in which it is possible to increase the temperature of the fuel and finally start thermonuclear fusion. The creation of such a closed reaction space is possible because plasma consists of charged particles, ions and electrons and these are well guided by a magnetic field. Since the launch of the world’s first tokamak in 1958 to the present day, tremendous advances have been made in tokamak research. There are more than fifty working tokamaks in the world today but the largest one, ITER, is still under construction.

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Tokamaks

The word "tokamak" is of Russian origin and means "toroidal chamber and magnetic coils." This magnetic confinement system holds plasma in magnetic fields of toroidal shape. The first tokamak, the T-1, started operation in 1958 in Russia, and since then the greatest advances in th

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Magnetic Confinement

Charged particles follow magnetic field lines. Tokamaks and stellarators twist those lines into a torus so plasma cannot leak out too quickly.

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Glossary

Tokamak

Toroidal magnetic fusion device using plasma current.

Divertor

Exhaust system at the plasma edge.

Central solenoid

Transformer coil on a tokamak axis.

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