Tore Supra

Tore Supra

Type	Tokamak
Operation date	1988–
Major radius	2.25 m
Minor Radius	0.70 m
Magnetic field	4.5 T (toroidal)
Heating	20 MW
Location	Cadarache, France

Tore Supra is a French tokamak that began operating after the discontinuation of TFR (Tokamak of Fontenay-aux-Roses) and of Petula (in Grenoble). Its name comes from the words torus and superconductor, as Tore Supra was for a long time the only tokamak of this size with superconducting toroidal magnets, allowing the creation of a strong permanent toroidal magnetic field.

Tore Supra is situated at the nuclear research center of Cadarache, Bouches-du-Rhône in Provence, one of the sites of the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique. It started operation in 1988. It has a goal of creating long-duration plasma; it now holds the record of the longest plasma duration time for a tokamak (6 minutes 30 seconds and over 1000 MJ of energy injected and extracted in 2003), and it allows to test critical parts of equipment such as plasma facing wall components or superconducting magnets that will be used in its successor, ITER.

WEST

After an upgrade (to test Tungsten plasma-facing materials) it is called WEST (Tungsten (or Wolfram in German) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak).

The WEST Project started in March 2013.

It should be operational in 2016.

Device parameters

As of 1988:

• Major plasma radius: 2.25 m
• Minor plasma radius: 0.70 m
• Toroidal magnetic field on the center of the plasma core: 4.5 T
• Plasma current: 1.7 MA
• Longest plasma discharge (predicted): 1000 s
• Auxiliary plasma heating (ion and electron cyclotron resonance heating and lower hybrid current drive): 20 MW

External links

• Tore Supra Official Site EURATOM-CEA (in French)
• Tore Supra photos
• Tore Supra video gallery
• 6.5-minute pulse in Tore Supra Dec 2003