Nuclear fusion has the potential to become the most important energy source of the new century. But still many problems, as e.g. the confinement of the plasma, are not yet solved. Thus they are subject to intense research which drives a rapid evolvement of this field of nuclear physics, and generates the need for an up-to-date textbook for graduate students. This state-of-the-art textbook assembles the material for a modern course, and is aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students. It both introduces the fundamental principles and theories of fusion plasma physics, and presents the most recent topics from various sources in a systematic and concise way. Each chapter is rounded off with a set of exercises.
This second edition of a popular textbook is thoroughly revised with around 25% new and updated content. It provides an introduction to both plasma physics and fusion technology at a level that can be understood by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the physical sciences and related engineering disciplines. As such, the contents cover various plasma confinement concepts, the support technologies needed to confine the plasma, and the designs of ITER as well as future fusion reactors. With end of chapter problems for use in courses.
Nuclear reactor physics is the core discipline of nuclear engineering. Nuclear reactors now account for a significant portion of the electrical power generated worldwide, and new power reactors with improved fuel cycles are being developed. At the same time, the past few decades have seen an ever-increasing number of industrial, medical, military, and research applications for nuclear reactors. The second edition of this successful comprehensive textbook and reference on basic and advanced nuclear reactor physics has been completely updated, revised and enlarged to include the latest developments.
This revised and enlarged second edition of the popular textbook and reference contains comprehensive treatments of both the established foundations of magnetic fusion plasma physics and of the newly developing areas of active research. It concludes with a look ahead to fusion power reactors of the future. The well-established topics of fusion plasma physics – basic plasma phenomena, Coulomb scattering, drifts of charged particles in magnetic and electric fields, plasma confinement by magnetic fields, kinetic and fluid collective plasma theories, plasma equilibria and flux surface geometry, plasma waves and instabilities, classical and neoclassical transport, plasma-materials interactions, radiation, etc. – are fully developed from first principles through to the computational models employed in modern plasma physics. The new and emerging topics of fusion plasma physics research – fluctuation-driven plasma transport and gyrokinetic/gyrofluid computational methodology, the physics of the divertor, neutral atom recycling and transport, impurity ion transport, the physics of the plasma edge (diffusive and non-diffusive transport, MARFEs, ELMs, the L-H transition, thermal-radiative instabilities, shear suppression of transport, velocity spin-up), etc. – are comprehensively developed and related to the experimental evidence. Operational limits on the performance of future fusion reactors are developed from plasma physics and engineering constraints, and conceptual designs of future fusion power reactors are discussed.
This second edition of a popular textbook is thoroughly revised with around 25% new and updated content. It provides an introduction to both plasma physics and fusion technology at a level that can be understood by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the physical sciences and related engineering disciplines. As such, the contents cover various plasma confinement concepts, the support technologies needed to confine the plasma, and the designs of ITER as well as future fusion reactors. With end of chapter problems for use in courses.