Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Poloidal field magnets | The last ring

    As the massive ring-shaped coil inched its way from the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility, where it was manufactured, to the storage facility nearby where i [...]

    Read more

  • Heat rejection | White "smoke" brings good news

    Like a plume of white smoke rising from a cardinals' conclave to announce the election of a new pope, the tenuous vapour coming from one of the ITER cooling cel [...]

    Read more

  • WEC 2024 | Energy on centre stage

    The global players in the energy sector convened in Rotterdam last week for the 26th edition of the World Energy Congress (WEC). The venue was well chosen, wit [...]

    Read more

  • Fusion world | The EU blueprint for fusion energy

    The EU Blueprint for Fusion Energy workshop, convened by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, brought together key stakeholders in the fiel [...]

    Read more

  • Neutral beam injection | ELISE achieves target values for ITER

    Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, have generated the ion current densities required for ITER neutral beam injecti [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Fusion world

DIII-D, advancing fusion science

The DIII-D National Fusion Facility has announced the end of a productive two-year experimentation campaign, with 200 days of operation and 1,600 plasma research hours.

DIII-D has been conducting groundbreaking fusion research since the mid-1980s. DIII-D has over 100 participating institutions and a research team of more than 600 users. (Click to view larger version...)
DIII-D has been conducting groundbreaking fusion research since the mid-1980s. DIII-D has over 100 participating institutions and a research team of more than 600 users.
In operation since the 1980s, the DIII-D tokamak is the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the United States. Operated by General Atomics for the US Department of Energy, it played an important role in providing data for the engineering design phase of ITER, and continues to work to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy production.

DIII-D explores a wide range of scientific issues that will help to prepare for ITER operation, including the exploration of the effect that internal stabilization coils have on preventing energy bursts from the plasma edge, the development of high-power microwave transmission line components with low energy losses, and software for controlling the plasma and protecting the ITER machine.

Key achievements of the latest campaign, as reported in a press release from General Atomics, include:

  • The demonstration of high performance "diverted negative triangularity" plasma configurations, which alter the shape of the plasma to improve performance and heat dissipation and potentially revolutionize the path to cost-effective fusion energy.
  • The deployment of a new radio-frequency wave injection technology known as "helicon current drive" with an innovative antenna that improves the delivery of energy to the plasma, potentially creating a new method for efficiently sustaining plasmas in a more compact and cost-effective manner.
  • Significant optimizations to DIII-D's flexible three-dimensional magnetic field configurations, which improved particle confinement and protections for the plasma-facing walls of the machine.
Findings from these and other areas of research will be announced in upcoming scientific journals and conferences.

A number of upgrades—such as a new divertor system and increased current drive capability—are planned to bring DIII-D to higher performance levels and to enable new research to improve plasma control and efficiency.

See the original press release here. 

return to the latest published articles