SCR-1

Summary

The Stellarator of Costa Rica 1 (or SCR-1) is a small modular stellarator for the magnetic confinement of plasma located at Cartago, Costa Rica. It is developed by the plasmaTEC group of the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications at Costa Rica Institute of Technology.[1][2] It began operation as Latin America's first stellarator on 29 June 2016.[3][4]

SCR-1
Stellarator of Costa Rica 1
SCR-1 vacuum vessel and coil structure
Device typeStellarator
LocationCartago, Costa Rica
AffiliationCosta Rica Institute of Technology
Technical specifications
Major radius238.1 mm (device)
140 mm (plasma)
Minor radius100 mm (device)
42.2 mm (plasma)
Magnetic field0.0438 T (438 G)
Discharge durationms
Plasma current40 kA
History
Year(s) of operation2016–present

SCR-1 is of a compact design and has the distinction of having the smallest aspect ratio of any operating stellarator device (>4.4). Its design is influenced by the small Spanish stellarator UST-1.[5]

History edit

In 2010, SCR-1 was originally proposed to be much bigger in size (major radius of 460.33 mm, plasma radius of 42.2 mm) and scale (aspect ratio of 5.7, magnetic field of 0.0878 Tesla), and was expected to complete in 2011.[5]

However, the development of SCR-1 took five years (between 2011 and 2015) to complete.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ Mora, J.; Vargas, V. I.; Otarola, C.; Piedra, C.; Jimenez, W.; Esquivel, L.; Esquivel, R.; Sanchez, K.; Gonzalez, J. (2015). "Engineering of the Stellarator of Costa Rica: SCR-1". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 591 (1): 012017. Bibcode:2015JPhCS.591a2017M. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/591/1/012017. hdl:2238/7213. ISSN 1742-6596.
  2. ^ Vargas, V.I.; Mora, J.; Otarola, C.; Zamora, E.; Asenjo, J.; Mora, A.; Villalobos, E. (2015-05-31). "Implementation of stellarator of Costa Rica 1 SCR-1". 2015 IEEE 26th Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE). IEEE. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/sofe.2015.7482321. hdl:2238/9819. ISBN 9781479982646. S2CID 24317018.
  3. ^ "SCR-1 stellarator in Costa Rica produces its first plasma". www.ipp.mpg.de. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  4. ^ "Costa Rica makes nuclear fusion history with plasma discharge". The Tico Times Costa Rica. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  5. ^ a b Barillas, L.; Vargas, V. I.; Alpizar, A.; Asenjo, J.; Carranza, J. M.; Cerdas, F.; Gutiérrez, R.; Monge, J. I.; Mora, J. (2014). "SCR-1: Design and Construction of a Small Modular Stellarator for Magnetic Confinement of Plasma". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 511 (1): 012037. Bibcode:2014JPhCS.511a2037B. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/511/1/012037. ISSN 1742-6596.
  6. ^ "Stellarator". plasma.ietec.org. Retrieved 2018-08-03.