On Thursday, January 30, 2020, the COMPASS team performed a jubilee shot number 20,000. The COMPASS tokamak is being used successfully for eleven years.
The ITER like plasma geometry and the ability to operate in the high energy confinement mode,
H-mode, enabled the wide use of COMPASS in the thermonuclear plasma physics research. The main
objectives of the research include the study of edge plasma processes, heat fluxes in the
plasma, plasma-wall interaction, the study of the plasma transition to operating modes with
high energy confinement and associated plasma instabilities, or the study of run-away electrons.
The obtained results had also a direct practical impact on the ITER design, e.g. on the decisions
on its divertor shape in order to optimize the impacting power distribution at the divertor tiles
edges, or on the establishing of accuracy requirements for the central solenoid positioning and,
consequently, testing of the compensation of the error fields caused by the eventual
misalignements.
The COMPASS tokamak became a part of the European network of fusion experimental facilities
and got engaged in worldwide fusion research. The results obtained on the COMPASS tokamak brought
the Czech thermonuclear fusion research among to the advanced level.
30 Jan 2020
