Stellarator Uragan-3M
The main program of U-3M is focused on RF plasma production and heating, physics of plasma confinement in stellarators, investigation of divertor in stellarator-reactor concept.
Methods of wall conditioning and cleaning the surfaces of fusion facilities with high-frequency plasma discharges were proposed and implemented. An important contribution to the understanding of divertor physics is discovery of the vertical asymmetry effect for the divertor plasma flows in helical divertor.
The Uragan-3 stellarator was put into operation in 1982.
In 1988, the Uragan-3 was upgraded to the Uragan-3M, with much more advanced helical coils installed.
The main feature of the Uragan-3M stellarator is that the entire magnetic system is placed in a vacuum chamber, what makes the magnetic configuration with a natural helical divertor implemented.
Parameters of the Uragan-3M stellarator:
Large radius of the torus | 1m |
Average plasma radius | 0.12m |
Magnetic field strength | ≤1.3T |
Number of helical coils of poloidal field | 3 |
Number of periods of a magnetic field | 9 |
Volume of the vacuum chamber | ~70m3 |
In the Uragan-3M, the hydrogen plasma is created and heated by high-frequency fields in the Alfven frequency range. For this purpose, two types of antennas are used: the frame and the three-half-turn antenna.
Photo of the frame RF antenna in the UIragan-3M vacuum chamber.
Photo of the three-half-turn RF antenna in the UIragan-3M vacuum chamber.