Tore Supra
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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 is the only one of the largest tokamaks to have 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, 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.
[edit] Device parameters
- 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): 12 MW