Research Needs for Magnetic Fusion Energy Sciences - US Burning ...

Summary of actions Proposed for this Thrust
actions in this Thrust go significantly beyond Us activities in this area in recent years. The first
could be requested from a Us panel of experts and could begin immediately:
Prioritize burning plasma measurement needs, including those for demo.
This prioritization could be repeated periodically as new information on plasma behavior is gathered
from operating devices, as the Us role in burning plasma research becomes better defined,
and as diagnostic design activities bring measurement issues into sharper focus. Following a
periodic oFes solicitation process, the diagnostic development community will be involved in
two critical activities:
Perform phased developments targeted to high-priority needs, including prototyping on
operating devices.
evaluate the success of the developments, and where appropriate, support the transfer of
techniques to iteR or other burning plasma devices.
Thrust Elements
Prioritize burning plasma measurement needs, including those for DeMO.
a first step in this Thrust is to establish development targets. This is a new regime of diagnostic
development. The requirements and risks are well described in chapter 12 of the “special issue on
Plasma diagnostics for magnetic Fusion Research,” Fusion Science and Technology, 55, Feb. 2008.
as a first step toward identifying high-priority burning plasma measurement needs, a Us panel of
experts could undertake a review of the iteR measurement requirements and the corresponding
expected capabilities. The panel could evaluate the acknowledged and likely emerging gaps, the
“at-risk” systems to target for the supplemental system development, and how these issues relate
to the high-priority Us research interests.
The iteR organization is presently working with the iteR parties to establish the “functional
specifications” for the planned diagnostics, which will provide the goals for the detailed design
of these systems. These specifications, along with basic layout designs, expected system performance,
and environmental risks, will be presented for each of the planned systems. a significant
body of information will thus be available in the near future, which, upon thoughtful review,
could inform the Us targeting effort. it will be beneficial to work with the iteR organization and
other stakeholders in this review process.
an important deliverable in the review proposed above could be a prioritized set of burning plasma
measurement issues to form the basis of a solicitation for a Us development effort. clearly addressing
acknowledged or newly identified measurement gaps could be one class of such issues;
improving the capability or reliability of presently planned iteR measurements could be another.
improvement of systems not presently allocated to the Us could also be considered. development
of a new class of more robust diagnostics to supplement high-risk systems would also be important
and would address concerns related to demo. a related set of topics includes better definition
of the measurement needs for demo, and an exploration of the feasibility of measurement
concepts for such devices. Priority could be given to topics that Us experts can plausibly address,
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