Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology Participates in Swedish Plasma Confinement Project
Novatron Fusion Group, a Swedish company, has announced the launch of its Tau-E Breakthrough (TauEB) project funded by 3 million euros from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Programme.
The project is implemented in collaboration with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), EIT InnoEnergy (Netherlands) and the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (Kharkiv) and is aimed to revolutionize plasma confinement for commercially viable fusion energy.
The success of fusion power plants hinges on the quality of energy confinement, which must meet two essential criteria: stability and the ability to sustain plasma over time with minimal leakage. The TauEB project addresses this challenge by focusing on enhancing plasma confinement time by over hundred times.
The project provides for the integration of three physical confinement techniques:
- Magnetic confinement: through the Novatron’s unique magnetic mirror design;
- Ambipolar plugging: an electrostatic plugging at the magnetic mirrors, achieved by creating an electric potential within the plasma;
- Ponderomotive confinement: confinement of the plasma by an external electric RF-field using the pondermotive force.
It is expected that the combination of these techniques will not only drastically improve confinement, but also will make fusion power economically attractive by generating energy at a competitive Levelized Cost of Energy.
Reference to the Nuclear Engineering International