The COMPASS Tokamak is the main experimental facility of the Tokamak Department. It has been designed and operated in 90th in UKAEA Culham in Great Britain and mothballed in 2002 due to start of the MAST tokamak operation.
The COMPASS Tokamak with its size (major radius 0.6 m and height of the vessel approx. 0.7 m) ranks to smaller tokamaks capable of the H-mode operation, which represents a reference operation ("standard scenario") for the ITER tokamak. Importantly, due to its size and shape the COMPASS plasmas correspond to one tenth (in the linear scale) of the ITER plasmas. Due to its direct relevance to the ITER project - the facility was offered by the European Commission and UKAEA to the Institute of Plasma Physics in Prague in autumn 2004. Installation and operation of the COMPASS Tokamak in the Institute of Plasma Physics sets the Czech Republic among advanced countries in research efforts in high-temperature plasmas and thermonuclear fusion. At present, besides COMPASS there are only two operational tokamaks in Europe with ITER-like configuration capable of regime with the High plasma confinement. It is the Joint European Torus JET and the German tokamak ASDEX-U (Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany). JET is presently the biggest experimental device of this type in the world.
Left: Scale of European tokamaks with cross-section similar to ITER. Right: Cutaway diagram of the COMPASS Tokamak
The history of the COMPASS Tokamak installation in IPP Prague
| 2004 - 2005 |
preparatory phase |
| June 2006 |
start of the project (awarding the preferential support by EURATOM) |
| 2006-2008 |
design, construction of buildings, dismantling, transport of the tokamak |
| December 2007 |
installation of the tokamak into new torus hall |
| 2008 |
the first plasma achieved |
| 2009-2011 |
final commissioning of the diagnostics, control systems, power supplies |
| 2012 |
scientific exploitation (operational phase) |
| November 2012 |
H-mode scenario achieved |
| 2013 |
Edge Localized Modes Type-I achieved |
 The COMPASS Tokamak
Parametres of the Tokamak COMPASS
| Parameters |
Values |
| Major radius R |
0.56 m |
| Minor radius a |
0.23 m |
| Plasma current Ip (max) |
400 kA |
| Magnetic field BT (max) |
0.9-2.1 T |
| Vacuum pressure |
1x10-6 Pa |
| Elongation |
1.8 |
| Plasma shape D |
D, SND, elipsa, kruh |
| Pulse length |
~ 1 s |
| Beam heating PNBI 40 keV |
2 x 0.4 MW |
Physics research programme
- H-mode physics
- Pedestal width physics
- L-H power threshold, isotope effects
- Edge Localized Modes, their control by magnetic perturbation and vertical kicks
- Zonal flows
- Transport in edge plasma and SOL
- Turbulent structures and intermittency in edge plasma – experiment and modelling
- MHD equilibrium and instabilities
- Plasma-wall interaction
- Physics of runaways and disruption
- Developments of advance diagnostic methods
- Integrated modelling and code development
Main systems
- CODAC (Control, Data Acquisition and Communication) system
- Power Supply
- Fast Feedback control system
- Cooling
- Vacuum system
- Fuelling
- Hydraulic preload system
- Neutral beam injection heating system
- Vessel baking system
- Glow discharge system
Plasma diagnostic systems
2. Microwave diagnostics
3. Spectroscopic diagnostics
4. Beam & particle diagnostics
- HR2000+ spectrometer for Ha & Da
- Neutron scintillation detector
- Diagnostics using Li-beam (BES, ABP)
- Two Neutral Particle Analyzers
- Charge-Exchange recombination spectroscopy – under construction
- Detection of fusion products
5. Probe diagnostics
Left: Photo of plasma inside vacuum chamber. Right: Numercial reconstruction of the plasma shape
 Inside view into the COMPASS vacuum vessel
|
|
