FPN09-42

Czech Republic Operating COMPASS-D Tokamak

September 11, 2009

On December 8, 2008, scientists at the Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Prague began operating the COMPASS-D, a tokamak that was relocated from the Culham Laboratory in the UK. Since that time they have been successfully conducting experiments with up to 0.6 MW of heating power "in the same magnetic geometry as JET." The Czech institute has had a long history of tokamak research. They inherited the TM-1 tokamak from the former Soviet Union, a device that had operated at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow since 1960. They renamed TM-1 as CASTOR tokamak.

The focus of the Czech program on COMPASS-D is "edge plasma" research. Two neutral beams enable both balanced and unbalanced injection in an "ITER-like" geometry, according to Dr, Radomir Panek, Head of the Tokamak Department at IPP. He notes that "new edge diagnostics with high temporal and spatial resolution will allow many key problems of present tokamak research to be addressed at a relatively low cost facility." Experiments with ELM suppression are planned in 2010.

Panek says the IPP would like "to create a Middle and Eastern Europe Centre for tokamak research" and apply the Czech Republic's "long tradition in fission research to fusion, for example to prepare Test Blanket Modules for next step fusion devices."

For more information, visit the IPP site at: http://www.ipp.cas.cz/