Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) was an experimental tokamak built at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) circa 1980 and entering service in 1982. TFTR was designed with the explicit goal of reaching scientific breakeven, the point where the heat being released from the fusion reactions in the plasma is equal or greater than the heating being supplied to the plasma by external devices to warm it up.
| Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor | |
|---|---|
TFTR in 1989 | |
| Device type | Tokamak |
| Location | Princeton, New Jersey, US |
| Affiliation | Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory |
| Technical specifications | |
| Major radius | 2.52 m (8 ft 3 in) |
| Minor radius | 0.87 m (2 ft 10 in) |
| Magnetic field | 6.0 T (60,000 G) (toroidal) |
| Heating power | 51 MW |
| Plasma current | 3 MA |
| History | |
| Year(s) of operation | 1982–1997 |
| Preceded by | Princeton Large Torus (PLT) |
| Succeeded by | National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) |
| Related devices | JT-60 |
The TFTR never achieved this goal, but it did produce major advances in confinement time and energy density. It was the world's first magnetic fusion device to perform extensive scientific experiments with plasmas composed of 50/50 deuterium/tritium (D-T), the fuel mix required for practical fusion power production, and also the first to produce more than 10 MW of fusion power. It set several records for power output, maximum temperature, and fusion triple product.
TFTR shut down in 1997 after fifteen years of operation. PPPL used the knowledge from TFTR to begin studying another approach, the spherical tokamak, in their National Spherical Torus Experiment. The Japanese JT-60 is very similar to the TFTR, both tracing their design to key innovations introduced by Shoichi Yoshikawa (1934-2010) during his time at PPPL in the 1970s.