The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has achieved a major milestone in the upgrade of PPPL’s main experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U), with the arrival in Spain of several 19-foot-long copper conductors that will form the basis of the inner magnet of the fusion device called the toroidal field coil or “TF coil.”
The magnet bundle at the center of the fusion device consists of two magnets, the TF coil, and the ohmic heating coil or OH coil. The combined magnets must be completed for PPPL to begin reassembling the NSTX-U. This will allow NSTX-U to resume experiments aimed at exploring whether the cored-apple-shaped spherical tokamak would provide a viable model for future fusion energy pilot plants.
“This is a major step in the project,” said Dave Micheletti, the director of major science and engineering projects and the NSTX-U Recovery Project director. “The magnet bundle is at the heart of the project — literally and figuratively.”