Fusion glossary
A
The application of neutral particle beams and/or high-frequency microwave radiation to the plasma from external sources, in order to provide the input heating power necessary to reach the temperatures required for fusion. Additional heating bridges the gap between resistive (or ohmic) heating due to plasma toroidal current (which gets weaker with increased temperature) and alpha-particle heating due to the slowing down of the helium reaction product in the plasma (which gets stronger with higher temperature).
ADITYA (synonym of Sun in Hindi) is the first indigenously designed and fabricated tokamak in India. Located at the Institute for Plasma Research in Gujarat and operated since 1989, this medium-size tokamak conducts experiments with high plasma current at high temperature. It was upgraded in 2016 to ADITYA-U to realize shaped-plasma operations in an open diverter configurations. See .
A tokamak experiment run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA up to the end of funding in 2016. One ot the three major US tokamaks (along with DIII-D and NSTX). See MIT's .
Oscillations caused by interacting magnetic fields and electric currents in plasma.
The fusion between the nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium (D) and tritium (T) produces one helium nucleus, also called an "alpha particle," and one neutron. The helium nucleus, which carries 20% of the energy produced by the fusion reaction, is electrically charged and remains confined by the magnetic fields of the tokamak. The heating provided by these alpha particles contributes to maintaining the temperature of the plasma. When heating by the helium nuclei is dominant ("alpha heating") the plasma is said to be a "burning plasma."
In fusion, created by fusing deuterium and tritium nuclei. The particle is the nucleus of a helium atom, made of two protons and two neutrons bound together.
Heating antennae providing radiofrequency power at electron cyclotron (EC) and ion cyclotron (IC) frequencies to the plasma.
The ASDEX Upgrade divertor tokamak at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching is Germany's largest fusion device. See more .
In fusion, this is the ratio of the major to minor radius of the toroidal plasma.